...and another thank you to Nuytsia@Tas on Flickr for both today's photograph and suggestions for links (original | BPotD Flickr Group Pool). I'm always grateful for photographs from Tasmania, despite the sad story behind this one.
Eucalyptus gunnii subsp. divaricata is a localized subspecies of the Tasmanian endemic commonly known as Miena cider gum. Drought, "possibly linked to climate change", has killed off a few stands of this threatened tree, including the one in today's photograph. Ten thousand individual plants were thought to remain in the wild as of 2003, though it is estimated this number continues to decline.
Nuytsia@Tas suggests the following links:
- Resurrecting Ghost Gums from the Threatened Plant Action Group of Tasmania
- Australian Threatened Species: Miena cider gum (PDF) from the Threatened Species Network of Australia
I'll also add the suggestion to visit the Hardy Eucalyptus Page, particularly photographs of Eucalyptus gunnii (and subsp. divaricata).
This is so sad. What an amazing tree it must have been.
well the climate changes all the time
i live in the states and we are
haveing a 500 year flood
more tornadoes then ever
florida has broken heat records
so early this june i live there
so much damage to crops and trees
here we start the hurricane season
nature just is
So the idea I've encountered that this is just a non-botanically distinct high altitude form of E. gunnii is not shared generally?
The current climate conditions we attribute to normal and natural patterns at our peril.
Dear Colleagues,
One of my friend in France at 850 miles south of Paris have E.gunnii ssp.divaricata in his garden and it produces viable seeds at first time this year. It resists 12 years ago at a severe 2 weeks winter time at -15° C. (temperature had almost never reach more than 0° C. during these 2 weeks).
We are far from the Ocean and our climate is not so frost but not so mild, too as in Brittany (NW France).
Is this subspecies a synonymous of E.gunnii as I've seen in several books or if not what is the main morphological difference with it ?
In this same place, E.pauciflora ssp.debeuzevillei is also hardy.
Thank you and best wishes,
Sorry : there are a mistake about my distance of Paris : it's 85 miles south and not 850 miles south !!!
Best regards,