Gum trees at my place - Eucalyptus major

I've been meaning to get back to my posts about gum trees. Previously in this blog I wrote about getting to know a local area, walking there as much as possible and becoming familiar with the trees. Looking at the bark and the structure of the tree but not having the need to try and identify the tree straight away. Wait until you feel familiar enough with one or two trees, that you can point them out easily, perhaps even away from the area you are frequenting. I will (still) get back to finishing that set of posts but first I really wanted to introduce you to the gum trees at my place.

So the first gum tree I would like to introduce is Eucalyptus major, also known as Grey Gum. This is not a dominant tree on my property, in fact there is only one. It is only moderately common in my area of Western Brisbane and in patchy distribution. However, I think (at certain times of the year) it is really easy to identify and it's also a very pretty gum, one of my very favourites, so here it is on my blog.

The Grey Gum has several shades of grey bark but at different times of the year it sheds its bark in patches to reveal this very distinctly orange bark underneath. Overtime the orange will fade to grey. When it rains the orange is very vibrant and easy to notice and identify. The grey bark is matte like in appearance and while the Grey Gum is a smooth barked gum, when you run your hand over the grey bark it's scaly and rough.

Because the Grey Gum is matte like, claw marks of koalas and possums are really visible on the bark, as you can see in the photos above. This gum mostly grows on stony soils in hilly areas (which is my place).

I have some gum nuts here from the Grey Gum in my collection but no photos of them, so I will be back to upload photos shortly. Isn't it a beautiful tree? I love it.