#3605 - Eucalyptus gomphocephala
- Tuart
'gomphocephala' means 'club-headed' and refers to the shape of the operculum on the flowerbud.
AKA tooart, moorun, mouarn or duart and white gum. The Perth suburbs White Gum Valley and Tuart Hill are named after it - not there's much Tuart woodland left in either. See below.
First scientifically described by Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in 1828, from specimens collected at the Vasse River 26 years previously, by Jean-Baptiste Leschenault.
One of the six forest giant eucalypts of Australia's Southwest. It used to form a nearly continous strip of coastal woodland from the Perth region all the way to Busselton, until most were cut down for export or to make room for more building subdivisions. The timber is dense, hard, water resistant and resists splintering. Remaining trees are unfortunately prone to Phytophthora dieback, an often fatal infection.
It grows in deep sand and sandy well-drained soils, often over limestone. The oldest trees - over 400 years in age - can be 40m tall and 19m around. Trees of that size are now very very rare.
Tuarts have been introduced into the warmer parts of Europe, several countries in Africa, and has become naturalised in parts of southern Africa.
Wellard, Perth.
