#eucalypt

Apparently, kangaroos really do like to eat kangaroo grass. As soon as I started to plant some seedlings, they were nibbled to the roots. The wombats, on the other hand, prefer to yank things out of the ground instead. Then they leave a calling card of square poo displayed on a rock. Very annoying. The kangaroo grass was part of my new meadow, using a completely different planting style to what…

AKA  colaille, gooloorto, koolert and moitch.

Described in 1837 by Austrian botanist, coin expert and Sinologist Stephan Friedrich Ladislaus Endlicher, based on specimens collected by Austrian nobleman, army officer, diplomat, botanist, and explorer Charles von Hügel. Hügel introduced many plants and flowers from New Holland (Australia) to Europe's public gardens.

A medium-sized eucalypt, endemic to the Perth area, commonly found in coastal wetlands and along watercourses, and rarely on granite rock. Spring foliage is very often infested with leaf miners, leaf blister sawflies like Phylacteophaga froggatti from the East Coast, and lerps.

North of Perth it hybridises with the River Red Gum Eucalyptus camaldulensis var. obtusa.

Formerly known as E. platypus var. heterophylla, until Australian botanists Ian Brooker and Stephen Hopper elevated it to its own species in 2002, based on specimens collected by Charles Austin Gardner near Hopetoun forty years earlier.

It grows to up to 15m tall, in a variety of coastal habitats from Perth south and east to Esperance, and a few scattered areas further east. Whether its growth form should be considered a mallee or a mallet is apparently the subject of ongoing debate, as there is disagreement on whether it grows a lignotuber or not - mallets don't.

- Tuart

'gomphocephala' means 'club-headed' and refers to the shape of the operculum on the flowerbud.

AKA tooart, moorun, mouarn or duart and white gum. The Perth suburbs White Gum Valley and Tuart Hill are named after it - not there's much Tuart woodland left in either. See below.

First scientifically described by Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in 1828, from specimens collected at the Vasse River 26 years previously, by Jean-Baptiste Leschenault.

One of the six forest giant eucalypts of Australia's Southwest. It used to form a nearly continous strip of coastal woodland from the Perth region all the way to Busselton, until most were cut down for export or to make room for more building subdivisions. The timber is dense, hard, water resistant and resists splintering. Remaining trees are unfortunately prone to Phytophthora dieback, an often fatal infection.

It grows in deep sand and sandy well-drained soils, often over limestone. The oldest trees - over 400 years in age - can be 40m tall and 19m around. Trees of that size are now very very rare.

Tuarts have been introduced into the warmer parts of Europe, several countries in Africa, and has become naturalised in parts of southern Africa.

AKA narrow leaved gimlet or swamp gimlet.

First formally described in 1844 by botanist William Jackson Hooker from specimens collected near the Swan River by James Drummond (them again!). The specific epithet means spoon-like or a broad rounded upper part tapering gradually downward into a stalk, but why Hooker chose that name is a mystery.

Endemic to inland WA, growing in sand, sandy clay over granite, and saline soils, but widely cultivated in southern Australia as a source of fuelwood and craftwood, as an ornamental and as a windbreak, and for apiculture. It's also grown in California. Both drought and frost tolerant and can withstand salt laden winds.

First formally described by the botanist Ferdinand von Mueller in 1895 in the Australasian Journal of Pharmacy. Don't ask me why they're publishing botanical descriptions there. Named after John Kruse, a German born pharmacist, who worked in Melbourne.

A mallee eucalypt endemic to inland Western Australia, growing on or near granite.

Grown as a drought and frost tolerant ornsamental, prefering full sun position.

Back when we were planning to move back to Australia from California, I explored permaculture as an option to improve our land.  I had a permaculture design drawn up as some expense. It was really pretty, and I still consult it from time to time. There are some excellent things about permaculture, and its younger child, regenerative farming.  It’s a whole different way of looking at the…