Eucalyptus tereticornis

Family Myrtaceae

Forest Red Gum

Tree up to 30 m high with smooth white or grey bark shedding in long strips during growth periods in autumn. Longevity up to 200 years. Quicker growing than Eucalyptus crebra.

Flowers: White, at various times throughout the year.Blossoms eaten by Grey-headed Flying Fox, Pteropus poliocephalus.

Fruit: Woody capsule, 4–8 mm long, mature June–November.

Seed: Small, retained in capsule on tree until shed (probably by November). Locally dispersed by gravity, about 20 m. No dormancy, germinate readily without treatment. No soil stored seedbank.

Gallery images: seed, seedling, rootstock, resprout

Ecology

• Commonly found in woodland on lower hillslopes and alluvial flats.
• Frequent, dominant in woodland at the Australian Botanic Garden. Diameters of old treees up to 1 m.
• Seedling recruitment episodic, in open areas, not fire related.
• Saplings reach flowering maturity in about 20 years.
• Resprouts from epicormic buds or basal sprouts after fire.