Tree Trail - Blue Mountains Botanic Garden

Scientific name: Doryphora sassafras
Family: Atherospermataceae
Location: At the Forest Lookout

Widespread in wetter forests along the coast and ranges of eastern Australia, Sassafras occurs naturally at the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden. The fertile basalt soils and sheltered, shady slopes of Mt Tomah provide ideal growing conditions for this and other rainforest species.

You can see Sydney city from the forest lookout on a clear day! Make sure to head to the viewing point before you continue along the tree trail.

Scientific name: Cyathea australis
Family: Cyatheaceae
Location: Where ‘Forest Walk’ intersects with the trail to the Rhododendron garden

Another resident native rainforest species that calls the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden home. Tree ferns can grow up to 20 m high, with fronds up to 3 m long!

The ‘trunk’ of these tree ferns is not a woody mass like that found in other forest trees, rather it is modified rhizome, a type of root structure!

Scientific name: Cedrus deodara
Family: Pinaceae
Location: Next to picnic table on Brunet Meadow

The Deodar is native to the western Himalayas, where it can grow to a height 60m! This majestic pine prefers cool mountainous locations at elevations between 1500 – 3000 m above sea level.

The Deodar is worshipped in Hindu culture, where forests of these trees have been considered sacred places where mediation takes place.

Scientific name: Eucalyptus fastigata
Family: Myrtaceae
Location: Large tree at bottom of Brunet Meadow next to the path

This huge remnant tree is likely to be several hundred years old! Brown Barrel grows well on the fertile soils of Mt Tomah and surrounding basalt-capped mountains nearby, such as Mt Wilson and Mt Irvine.

These forest giants can reach heights of 60 m or more and several very large specimens can be seen at the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden. Brown Barrel is most closely related to Eucalyptus regnans (Mountain Ash), Australia’s largest trees species that grows in wet forest in Victoria and Tasmania.

Brown Barrel, like the Mountain Ash, are more fire-sensitive than other eucalypts, and do not possess a lignotuber, the underground woody mass of growth buds that enable new shoots to grow from the tree base following fire.

Scientific name: Wollemia nobilis
Family: Araucariaceae
Location: Downslope from ‘the beach’

Thought to be a long-extinct species, a population of around 100 Wollemi Pines were discovered growing in deep, sheltered gully in a remote wilderness area not far from here in 1994! This ‘living dinosaur’ has been the subject of much scientific attention and stringent management plans are in place to help conserve this endangered species into the future.

Fungal pathogens, commonly transported on the shoes of walkers and changes to fire regimes and climate are the main threats to the isolated and genetically similar individuals remaining in the wild.

Scientific name: Araucaria muelleri
Family: Araucariaceae
Location: Nearby to the Wollemi Pine

While the Australian mainland is limited to just a few Araucarias, this ancient Gondwanan lineage of non-flowering coniferous plants is more diverse on the nearby island of New Caledonia.

Much like the Wollemi Pine, The Mueller Araucaria is endangered by human activities, changes to fire regimes and climate change. This species has some of the largest leaves of any Araucaria!

Scientific name: Xanthorrhoea glauca
Family: Xanthorhoeaceae
Location: Above the beach pond, at base of the rock garden

This iconic and widespread species occurs throughout eastern Australia and is easily recognised by its distinctive ‘tuft’ of long narrow leaves and very large flower stalk that arises from the crown.

Grass trees are extremely slow-growing, gaining only 1 – 2 cm of growth per year in the wild. As such, the nursery industry has been slow to invest in broadscale cultivation of grass trees and illegal harvesting from the wild is a serious problem. Grass trees make an attractive landscape feature in any modern garden, which has led to their widespread appeal and subsequent high demand.

Grass trees are highly resilient to fire and with deeply buried growth buds can resprout new leaves shortly after the fire has passed.

Scientific name: Eucalyptus copulans
Family: Myrtaceae
Location: At bottom of the ‘bog garden’

Known from only two specimens growing in swampy site in Blue Mountains, this extremely rare and endangered eucalypt has a ‘mallee’ habit, which means that instead on a single, large stem, it usually has a number of smaller stems.

The smooth bark of this trees sheds off as the stems grow, while new bark grows just underneath!

Scientific name: Betula pendula
Family: Betulaceae
Location: Residence garden lawn

This striking white-barked species grows in cool climates across a very large distribution that includes Europe, Scandinavia, Siberia and parts of eastern Asia. Being deciduous, it loses its leaves during the coolest and darkest part of the year to conserve resources.

This commonly planted street tree is found in parks and gardens throughout the world. The smooth, white bark is commonly found on younger trees but as they age large, dark rough patches develop on the trunk.

Scientific name: Sequioadendron giganteum
Family: Cupressaceae
Location: At beginning of trail on west side of residence garden, set back in garden bed

Welcome to the largest growing organism in the world! Giant Sequioas can live for thousands of years and attain gigantic proportions. This North American species is endangered, with most of its habitat removed from centuries of logging.

Being among the oldest and largest living things on planet Earth, these forest giants have thick fire-resistant bark that enables them to survive fires over millennia.