Eucalyptus deglupta, Rainbow-Tree seeds

Rainbowtree seeds

Eucalyptus deglupta belongs to the Myrtaceae and is not native to Australia like most oft he people think. The plant is native to some islands of the Phillipines, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. Eucalyptus deglupta grows as a tree and can reach impressive heights of about 50 m. The trunk of Eucalyptus deglupta looks spectacular.

At the first glance one might question oneself who was going to the rainforest with a paintbrush to color these trees. One the second glance one recognizes that everything is really made by nature. The trunk is colorful because the bark peels of the trunk in pieces of different size at different time. With the first peeling the trunk becomes green, orange, yellow or red. With age the colors change into turquoise, red, blue and brown. There is almost no color that is not occurring on this trunk. The bark that peeled off hangs sometimes still on the trunk for some time. After a short rain the colors look especially intensive. With justice this tree is also known as rainbow eucalyptus. The trunk gets 2,5 m in diameter. Sometimes buttress roots exist. The leaves do not have the typical odor that is associated with Eucalyptus species. They have only a slightly eucalyptus smell. They are longish ovate and get 15 cm long and 10 cm wide. The flowers are clustered in panicles. The rainbow eucalyptus does not flower in the first year, but bears flowers in the second year. The rainbow eucalyptus is mainly cultivated as ornamental plant because of its colorful trunk. In its native country the wood of the rainbow eucalyptus is used. Eucalyptus deglupta grows quite fast, that makes it a good tree for timber production.

The seeds of the rainbow eucalyptus need light to germinate. They should just be pressed into the substrate. In the constantly moist substrate Eucalyptus deglupta germinates at a temperature of 23°C after just 1 to 3 weeks. The rainbow eucalyptus is not winter hardy