With Spencer Shaw – FOREST HEART Eco-Nursery
GUM Trees are ‘the’ iconic Australian trees. They occur in almost every ecosystem from deserts to rainforests, from beach sides to mountain tops, from the tropics to the Australian Alps.
Gum Trees literally frame the Australian landscape. There are a few Gums that are small, such as the Plunkett Mallee – Eucalyptus curtisii – but the vast majority of Gums are big, often very big! The Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans) from Victoria and Tasmania is the tallest flowering plant in the world, recorded historically at over 120 metres. The last big ones were cut down to measure…
Closer to home we have Flooded Gums (Eucalyptus grandis) and Blackbutt (Eucalyptus pilularis), which can grow to over 70 metres.
Gum Trees often are big trees for a “Big Country”; however, most of us don’t live in the “Big Country”. Most of us live in small backyards, and although Gum trees are a national institution, they are too big for your average backyard.
Often Gum trees are planted as a fast-growing windbreak or privacy barrier, close to houses and fences. Within a few years the privacy barrier is gone, as the trees race upwards leaving a bare trunk. Also within a decade or so, there starts a rain of branches, with the associated hazard of heavy sharp bits of timber plummeting earthward in your backyard!
Then there’s the gum leaves clogging gutters if planted within 20–40 metres of a house.
So where am I going with this, I hear you say? Am I challenging the iconic status of the great Aussie Gum Tree?
Not quite… just trying to save you a lot of money when it comes to tree management, by suggesting you don’t plant gum trees in small backyards and near infrastructure.
That said, all the attributes that make gum trees bad for the backyard are their greatest assets in the bush. They are fast-growing, hardy trees and great habitat for wildlife.
Just don’t plant them next to your hills hoist!
