Eucalyptus grandis flooded gum, rose gum

A tall, notably upright tree, rose gum grows in pure stands in moist forests and along streams in its native haunts. In California it has done remarkably well, including in the unirrigated clay of the Bracewell Memorial Grove in the Arboretum. There, the pale boles of four specimens planted in 2008 rise cleanly and straight, each with a rough collar of bark at its base. The leaves are paler beneath (always an important clue in eucalypt identification), the juvenile ones often with wavy margins. The buds come in groups of 7–11, each group held on a flattened ⅘ inch peduncle. Mature fruit capsules have fierce-looking, protruding valves that are incurved.

Rose gum (so called because of its pink heartwood) is a valued timber tree and grows in extensive plantations in South Africa and Brazil. Grandis means large or grand. The U.S. champion, 216 feet high in 1996, is at UCLA.