There are more than 700 species of Eucalyptus and almost all are native to Australia. Commonly known as gum trees because of the sap that oozes from any breaches in the bark, they grow almost everywhere, from the inland deserts to the alpine areas of the southern states.
The flower of a eucalypt is not composed of petals. Instead, a large number of long feathery stamens are held together by a colourful operculum. As the stamens dry and fall away from the clusters of blossoms, seeds form in the opercula which dry and become hard – we call them gum nuts.
When the gum trees are flowering, we know summer has begun.
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Lovely. I look forward to seeing these flowering again.
Me too Miriam. We’ve returned to winter today, after 7 days of blissful warmth in the tropical north.
Ah Carol, brrr, join the rest of us northerners. Stay warm. 🙂
I meant southerners! !
Extraordinary, aren’t they? 🙂
Yes, I never tire of seeing them.
A post with beautiful photos and a learning experience – nice one. 🙂
Thanks Judy. Glad you enjoyed this post. 🙂
Beautiful, never seen them before!
Glad you like them Roberto.
Extraordinary! Love your essence of summer 😀
Thank you Jude!
Gorgeous! Never heard or seen these operculums before….even when I visited New Zealand. Thanks for the brief information.
They come in all shapes and colours too, like all the different flowers I suppose.
So pretty.
Thanks Anne.
There’s a gum tree flowering at the end of my street. It is most definitely not summer.
That’s interesting. I’ve never seen any flowering in winter. What colour are the blossoms?
They’re pink. They look like the ones in the first photo in this article. There really are winter flowering gums! 🙂
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2005/05/05/3299439.htm
Well, there you go. I learned something new today! I must look closely when I next see a eucalypt.
Lovely flowers, Carol. We had gum trees in our garden in Johannesburg, but they aren’t allowed to be planted any more, as they are alien trees.
I can understand that point of view.
We have a lot of gums on the farm, Carol. They are absolutely beautiful trees 🙂
I would like to plant some smaller ones down the side of our drive to hide the new housing estate that is going up on the hill over the road. I would much rather look at trees!
I think eucalyptus are my favorite trees !! I love the smell, the bark, the shape of the leaves. An eucalyptus forest is pure magic to me. Thanks for the info on the flowers…. I have not seen them ever nor did I know that there were so many species!! And those are just the ones native to Australia. Man I am definitely missing out.
I love the puffy red flower that looks like a mini lantern!
Peta
The flowers are my favourites.
Stunning! I wish we could see them flowering here. I think it’s summer…
I hope your summer comes before we get there in September!
These are such beauties! I didn’t realise that some of the flowers were as colourful as these 😀
I love the blossoms. I keep telling Mr ET we should have a couple of smaller trees in our garden.
Great post and informative. I knew very little about the trees, but did see several in Australia. Was there in the winter, so did not see flowers. Thanks for sharing.
Maybe you should visit again!
Waw, this is such a great post! Waw too! 🙂
Thanks! 🙂
I haven’t seen eucalyptus flowers before – they are stunning! In one house we lived in we had a eucalyptus tree in the garden (I have no idea which species it was) and I liked its grey/green/blue leaves but I don’t remember there ever being a flower on it.
Some varieties do have beautiful blueish leaves. Elaine, I will have so much to show you when you get around to visiting us. Sooner rather than later, I hope!
I am still working on it for 2017! 🙂
Excellent!