EUCALYPTOLOGICS: GIT Forestry Consulting Information Resources on Eucalyptus Cultivation Worldwide :: EUCALYPTOLOGICS: GIT Forestry Consulting Recursos de Informacion sobre Cultivo Sostenible de Eucalyptus :: Information Resources on Eucalyptus Cultivation Worldwide

Warning: ironies below

As you well know, Eucalyptus are those little diverse Australian trees, that all become giants, invasive unestoppable weeds, they deplete soil and lower watertables, so aggresive nothing grows under them, so poisonous nothing can grow where they once grew, as much troublegiving as unable to be planted in gardens because their roots spread for a hundred meters and can cause havoc to anything growing in their way. They have nil or low ornamental potential and in addition they are not cold hardy!

Pruned compact cold hardy Eucalyptus in big containers for ornamental use / Eucalipto ornamental resistente a la helada en grandes contenedores /GIT Forestry Consulting, Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal. Lugo, Galicia, Spain, España

Fig 1: Example of compact growth in sculpted cold hardy Eucalyptus grown in big containers

Minilyptus, cold hardy sculpted ornamental Eucalyptus for medium sized gardens / Minilyptus, eucalipto ornamental esculpido y resistenete a la helada para jardines medianos / GIT Forestry Consulting, Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal. Lugo, Galicia, España, Spain

Fig 2: Example of garden performance for Minilyptus, sculpted for mallee growth habit. Planted in company of red flowering Callistemon and with an understorey of different Hebe cultivars.

Eucalyptus perriniana, cold hardy sculpted ornamental Eucalyptus for medium sized gardens / Eucalipto giratorio, eucalipto ornamental esculpido y resistenete a la helada para jardines medianos / GIT Forestry Consulting, Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal. Lugo, Galicia, España, Spain

Fig 3: Example of distinct connate juvenile foliage and flower buds of the Spinning Gum Tree.

Eucalyptus gunnii, cold hardy sculpted ornamental Eucalyptus for medium sized gardens / Eucalipto de la Sidra, eucalipto ornamental esculpido y resistenete a la helada para jardines medianos / GIT Forestry Consulting, Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal. Lugo, Galicia, España, Spain

Fig 4: Example of heavily pruned (pollarded) Eucalyptus gunnii cultivated from a potted specimen and planted too close to infrastructures. Obligatorily submitted to size control operations and hence avoid excessive height growth and root spread.

So as you can see, our main recommendation is wihtout any doubt that you please keep growing Leylandii and forget about Eucalyptus as ornamentals.

Especially because in addition to the examples of non ornamental foliage displayed above, you can also check that their boring bark and too similar flower buds are not at all worth of cultivation from an aesthetic point of view! So we do not need to consider their flowers at all.

Summing up, the right thing would be sending them all back to Australia, because as you well know, eucalypts cannot make good timber either!

Contact GIT Forestry Consulting / Contact Eucalyptologics / Contacto GIT Forestry Consulting / Contacto Eucalyptologics / Lugo, Galicia, Spain, España

Contact GIT Forestry Consulting - Eucalyptologics

If you want to join us in this fundamentalist crusade for the erradication of Eucalyptus worldwide, please do not hesitate contacting us!

GIT's Eucalyptology Topics

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One of the controversial issues with Eucalyptus trees has to do with their root systems. Frequently exaggerated as a factor against their planting in gardens or urbanised areas as ornamental trees, menaces of doom to basements, pavements, drainages and other structures are widespread and even fantasy tales about their thirsty roots coming out of your kitchen tap are not that uncommon.

Difficult to debunk this myth with some real facts without digging up a bit. And that is exactly what Dr. Hailu Zerfu in collaboration with the Institute of Forest Ecology of the University of Vienna did in the highlands of Ethiopia, which, as you may have guessed, it is also Eucalyptus country.

Eucalyptus root system survey in the highlands of Ethiopia by Dr. Hailu Zerfu to assess sustainability of their cultivation and impact on nutrient cycles and soil properties

Example of methodology to survey root spatial distribution and biomass and nutrient allocation in Eucalyptus fuelwood plantations established on deep heavy clay soils in Amhara (Ethiopia).

Eucalyptus root system spatial distribution on deep clay forest soils in the highlands of Ethiopia

Spatial distribution of Eucalyptus root systems: summary of results

No doubt, some eucalypt species that reach big tree sizes when adult do have, as most of trees, a quite extensive root system. For forestry plantings and under the philosophy of sustainable forestry production, these root systems matter as both aboveground and belowground biomass immobilise carbon (so they are carbon sinks contributing to fight global warming) and also immobilise nutrients, which matters to the cycles of these in the forest.

For gardeners including eucalypts in their designs, studies like these can give small hints on why planting the wrong species of Eucalyptus right besides the walls of your house can pose a risk of future problems. But also hints of reasonably safe planting distances, which are not, as some propagate, dozens or hundreds of meters!

The problem then are not the Eucalyptus roots. The problem can arise, as usual, if planting the wrong species in the wrong place. Know your trees. And know your soils.

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