Ever seen a ‘zoo of trees?’
Kevin Stokes from Newcastle Group is fascinated by eucs and suggests a visit to the Currency Creek Eucalyptus Arboretum in South Australia can be a rewarding experience.
He says, “Perhaps the best way to introduce the arboretum is by using a summary from the web site: http://www.dn.com.au/Currency_Creek_Arboretum.html
‘The main purpose of Currency Creek Arboretum (CCA) is research into Australia’s dominant natural group of plants, the eucalypts (genera Angophora, Eucalyptus and Corymbia).
Currency Creek Arboretum was established and is managed by Dean Nicolle and is largely self-funded. The arboretum has the largest collection of Eucalypt species in the world, with over 900 species and subspecies (and over 8000 individual plants). This is almost double the number of Eucalypt taxagrown on any other one site elsewhere. Major plantings continue most years.’
Eucalyptus is a quintessential Australian genus, along with Corymbia and Angophora, and are of enormous interest from many points of view not least of which is taxonomy.
The distribution of Australian Eucalypts is interesting in itself and why are there so many species? Eucalypts are small shrubs to large trees and occur over most of the country, although are sparsely occurring in arid areas and are absent from rainforests. They provide a panorama of forms and flower colours and form.
If you are not familiar with the Arboretum or website and are interested in the Eucalypts a visit to the site will be rewarding.
Included are a few images of Eucalyptus Kevin has come across during his travels.
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 Corymbia gummiferum, image Kevin Stokes |
 Eucalyptus robusta, image Kevin Stokes |