Eucalyptus leucoxylon white ironbark

Eucalyptus leucoxylon in Lasuen Grove, in the Arboretum, near Palm Drive. Sairus Patel, 1 Jun 2015

Eucalyptus leucoxylon flower buds and fruit. John Rawlings, c 2005

Bark is a useful feature for identification but is not a good guide to botanical affinity; for example, the thick, black, persistent, hard bark of the red ironbark (E. sideroxylon) looks nothing at all like the pale, thin, deciduous bark of E. leucoxylon and yet the two trees are very closely related. The buds, in threes, have longer pedicels that in due course give the shape of the fruits a stouter connection at their place of attachment.

Old specimens are at 562 Salvatierra Walk and in the area between Bonair Siding and Maples Pavilion; others dating back to the 1960s are on Pampas Lane opposite the Credit Union and on Raimundo Way near Stanford Avenue. Some of these trees have a sprawling habit with foliage at eye level and others are taller with straight trunks. The specimen that was featured in the Stanford calendar of May 1981 stands alone on Maloney Field at El Camino Real. Heavy planting took place in the 1990s on Campus Drive East to screen Castaño and Lantana residences from the road. The horticultural variety used has copious bright red flowers, but an occasional reversion to the white wild form is seen.

Illustrations: leaf and fruit, from An Illustrated Manual of Pacific Coast Trees, Howard E. McMinn & Evelyn Maino.

Related material: Eucalyptus checklist