One of my favourite Mallees…Eucalyptus luehmanniana

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This is Eucalyptus leuhmanniana or Yellow Topped Ash, it is a rare species to the east coast of NSW and grows in high rainfall areas on sandstone soils, it comes in a glaucous and non-glaucus form, the glaucous form is my first choice.

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Above you can see the whitish-silver stems and buds of the glaucous form. In the bush this species grows as a mallee forming several smalls trunks or stems giving it a shrubby habit, this usually happens whilst growing on a poor rocky soil. As seen below.

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Grown in a garden situation in a deeper, richer soil it may only have one trunk and will reach between 4 and 6 metres high. It has showy  creamy flowers and large grey leathery pendulous leaves that are limey green when juvenile. The trunks are smooth and white with the fresh stems and branchlets a deep red.

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Eucalyptus leuhmanniana makes a wonderful feature tree or specimen tree in a small garden, I have found it to be tolerant of wet weather and heavy soils. Personally I think it rivals some of the more showy WA species.

 

Comments

5 responses to “One of my favourite Mallees…Eucalyptus luehmanniana”

  1. Colette

    Hello, is there a particular way to encourage it to grow in the mallee form (ie multi-trunked) in the home garden?

  2. Kath Gadd

    Hi Colette,

    You should be able to encourage growth from the lignotuber or the existing branches to divide by pruning. Mallee Eucalyptus will take a hard prune to shape them as you would like.

    Best Wishes,

    Kath

  3. Colette

    Thanks Kath, roughly how big should I let the tree get before I prune it, and how drastic does the pruning need to be to encourage to sprouting?

  4. Kath Gadd

    hi Collette,

    I would let it get to your desired height before you prune it, then a hard prune is about 30% off.

    Hope this info helps,

    Best,

    Kath

  5. Laura

    I’d really like to plant one but having trouble finding one to buy (near Canberra). Are there any nurseries you know of who sometimes have them, that I could check with?

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