Eucalyptus botryoides southern mahogany, bangalay

Eucalyptus botryoides fruit capsules. John Rawlings, c 2005

The rough bark of this imposing tree is fissured and somewhat fibrous, a warm orange-brown to gray; the smaller branches are smooth. Its distinctive flower buds are arranged in groups of 7–11 on a strap-shaped peduncle. Up to ½ inch long, the buds comprise an elongated, sometimes almost cylindrical shaft capped by a conical to rounded operculum that can look a touch top-heavy. Lacking individual stalks, they appear crowded together, especially as the capsules develop and mature. (Botrys is Greek for a bunch of grapes.)

The swamp mahogany, E. robusta, is closely related and has more deeply fissured, chunkier bark; its buds and capsules, though larger and set on tiny stalks, are still borne on a flat peduncle. The “mahogany” in their names refers to the deep pink to reddish wood that is reminiscent of West Indian mahogany (Swietenia mahogani).

Our only remaining specimen is between Durand and McCullough buildings, next to the graceful grove of pale-trunked Corymbia citriodora, the lemon-scented gum. Three sprouts from its base are forming slender trunks in their own right, two of which have breached the height of three-storey McCullough.

A trio of trees reported south of Hoover Tower, on Crothers Way, were removed by 2016, likely due to the reconfiguration of the hardscaping there. An intriguing hybrid once grew on the former Eucalypt Walk on Campus Drive, just south of Jane Stanford Way. It matched all the attributes of E. botryoides but for the bark, which was smooth and peeling, uncharacteristic of any of its close relatives. It may have been a cross with Sydney blue gum, E. saligna, which has similar buds and leaves but a smooth trunk; these two species intergrade in nature where their ranges overlap.