Seeana

While cycling around Wishart I came across this magnificent old-growth gum (possibly a Narrow-leaved Red Gum, Eucalyptus seeana) as it caught the morning sun at the Wishart Bushland Reserve. While I was writing at a seat below, a pair of Rainbow Lorikeets emerged from a deep nest hole to screech a welcome.

This old tree (it has a diameter of approximately a metre at chest height) has mottled smooth bark alongside a huge scar extending far up along one side. I’d guess it was over 200 years old and that it has endured traumatic injury a long time ago. It probably lost a large limb, even the main stem, in a storm, and as it fell the bark was stripped away along the southern side. Then a scar formed to heal the loss. There is evidence that in response to this injury new stems have grown on the other, northern side. This would serve to re-balance the tree.

The thin eucalyptus leaves of the canopy reflect the early morning sunlight and suggest that the tree is an Eucalyptus seeana rather than its broader-leaved and more common cousin, Eucalyptus tereticornis.