About Blue Gums
Southern Blue Gum mature leaf (left), juvenile leaves (right), fruits or gum-nuts (top) and warty flower buds (Canberra Nature Map).
The up to 45 m tall Eurabbie or Southern Blue Gum, Eucalyptus globulus subsp. bicostata is a tree from Victoria’s forests which has been extensively planted in Canberra, for instance along Anzac Parade, the nature strip along Antill Street and in the Valour Memorial Park. The large blue gums of Valour Park drop their gum-nuts into the adjacent reserve; if unchecked, this non-local species will replace the local trees of Mt Majura’s Yellow Box Blakely’s Red Gum Grassy Woodland and form a blue gum forest along the drainage line that runs parallel to Valour Park. Therefore, young Blue Gum saplings and seedlings should be removed on a regular basis.
Young plants up to about 30cm tall can be pulled out and larger saplings can be cut with loppers and the cut surface dabbed with Glyphosate. Some of the older saplings might be marked with pink tape for easy identification and to distinguish them from the local Blakely’s Red gums.
Young blue gums in the nature reserve and their mature parent trees (in the background) growing on the other site of the fence in Valour Park (Canberra Nature Map).
