FoI
Forest Red Gum
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Forest Red Gum
ntroduced Photo: Gurcharan Singh
Common name: Forest Red Gum, Bastard Box, Blue Gum, Flooded Gum, Grey Gum, Mountain Gum • Telugu: Neelagiri • Mizo: Nawalhthing
Botanical name: Eucalyptus tereticornis    Family: Myrtaceae (Bottlebrush family)

Forest Red Gum is the most common eucalyptus, widely planted in India. It grows to a height of 20-50 m, and a trunk girth of up to 2 m. The trunk is straight, and is usually unbranched for more than half of the total height of the tree. Thereafter, limbs are unusually steeply inclined for a Eucalyptus species. The bark is shed in irregular sheets, resulting in a smooth trunk surface colored in patches of white, gray and blue, corresponding to areas that shed their bark at different times. It has narrow, lanceshaped green leaves, from 10-20 cm long, and 1-3 cm wide. Flowers occur in inflorescences of 7-11 flowers. Flowers buds are like long cones, longer than most eucalyptus species. The caps fall off to reveal the flowers which are mostly stamens. Fruit is a small woody capsule with protruding teeth.

Identification credit: Gurcharan Singh
Photographed in Delhi
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