Phil Bendle Collection:Eucalyptus regnans (Mountain ash)

Kingdom:   Plantae
(Unranked):        Angiosperm
(Unranked):        Edicts 
(Unranked):        Rosids 
Order:       Myrtale
Family:      Myrtaceae 
Genus:      Eucalyptus 
Species:     E. regnans
Binomial name: Eucalyptus regnans
Common name: Mountain ash, Victorian ash, Swamp gum, Tasmanian oak, Stringy gum 

Eucalyptus regnans is a species of Eucalyptus native to southeastern Australia, in Tasmania and Victoria and is the tallest of all flowering plants, Historically, it has been known to attain heights over 114 meters (374 ft) making it one of the tallest tree species in the world..
An evergreen tree, Eucalyptus regnans is the tallest of the eucalypts, growing to 70–114.4 m with a straight, grey trunk, smooth-barked except for the rough basal 5–15 meters. The leaves are falcate (sickle-shaped) to lanceolate, 9–14 centimeters long and 1.5–2.5 centimeters broad, with a long acuminate apex and smooth margin, green to grey-green with a reddish petiole. The flowers are produced in clusters of 9–15 together, each flower about 1 centimeter diameter with a ring of numerous white stamens. The fruit is a capsule 5–9 millimeters long and 4–7 millimeters broad.. 
In Australia Eucalyptus regnans is valued for its timber, and has been i harvested in very large quantities. Primary uses are sawlogging and wood chipping. It was a major source of newsprint in the 20th century. Much of the present woodchip harvest is exported to Japan. While the area of natural stands with large old trees is rapidly decreasing. There are areas of regrowth that exist and it is increasingly grown in plantations, the long, straight, fast growing trunks being much more commercially valuable than the old growth timber. 

The photos below are of a Eucalyptus regnans planted in 1860, at St Luke's Church, Main Road, Greytown, New Zealand.. It is the most famous of Greytown's trees. It is one of three seedlings taken from a wheelbarrow of supplies being hauled from Wellington to Parkvale in 1856 by Samuel Oates and a mate. Samuel was 'resting' in the Rising Sun Inn in Greytown when the seedlings were taken and planted.  The tree had a lucky escape in 1968 when the old St Luke's Church was burnt down. Singed but survived.  It is one of the trees mentioned  in  “Great Trees of New Zealand” – by S.W. (Stanley Walter) Burstall 1984. 

 

  

  

The sickle-shaped leaf

---