Eucalyptus nitens "Compacta"

The strange case of a giant eucalyptus behaving like a small mallee bush

Gustavo Iglesias Trabado
GIT Forestry Consulting - Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal - www.git-forestry.com - EUCALYPTOLOGICS

Growing on very acidic skeletal soils over granites this specimen of Eucalyptus nitens has decided to take off with a mallee habit instead of the typical columnar single stemmed one proper of this eucalypt species.

Fig. 1: Rare Eucalyptus nitens specimen showing a mallee habit

This curious case is not similar to a previously mentioned example of regeneration from coppice.

The pictured specimen is currently 60 month old (right) and grows in a small plot where trees had not been planted/harvested before, even aged with neighbour trees showing the more typical growth habit. Close inspection of the base of the trunks by age 42 months (left) revealed no visible stump of previous single stemmed growth, just very vigorous fused multiple branching.

Stressing growth conditions, particularly reduced moisture availability due to soil type and partial shade from neighbour trees and shrubs, have caused some leaf loss during its fifth year and make us wonder what the outlook would be if it was growing in better conditions. However the compact habit is easily noticeable yet, and growth in height has been relatively slow (neighbour trees more than double it already). A potentially interesting phenotype, slower growing than the average, very glaucous and compact shaped Shining Gum germplasm source in the short term that could find ornamental applications as hedge plant.

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© 2007 Gustavo Iglesias Trabado. Please contact us if you want to use all or part of this text and photography elsewhere. We like to share, but we do not like rudeness.