Corymbia maculata
Location: Between the 18th green and the clubhouse
| Other locations on course: | There are many spotted gums scattered around the course.
There is a group just over the hill on the left side of the 18th fairway. There is a large spotted gum in the small garden at the entrance to the clubhouse on the left side. If one views this tree from the courtyard, the limbs and foliage contrast clearly with the lemon scented gum (also widely present) immediately to its left. |
| Origin & distribution: | Coastal New South Wales and coastal eastern Victoria. |
| Height: | to 70 metres. |
| Uses: | The timber is very strong. It is used for construction, piles, poles, flooring and plywood. |
The timber is very strong. It is used for construction, piles, poles, flooring and plywood.
The spotted gum is a tall straight tree; one of Australia’s most beautiful native trees.
Natural hybridisation occurs between spotted gums (Corymbia maculata) and lemon scented gums (Corymbia citriodora).
Spotted gums tend to drop their limbs on hot, humid days because the moisture in the timber expands and the branches become too heavy for the tree to hold.
Its name, from the Latin, maculosus, or “spotted”, refers to the marks on the bark. The old, orange-coloured bark peels off at the beginning of summer, leaving asymmetrical, rounded, green, then grey-white and finally yellow, shapes.
The nectar-rich flowers make excellent honey.
Since the end of the 20th Century, experts have transferred more than 100 eucalyptus, including this one and the lemon scented gum, into the Corymbia genus. It differs in the structure of its flower, a corymb, in which the flowers, regardless of the length of their stems, are in the same place.
(source: Cedric Pollet)
“As the poet said, only God can make a tree, probably because it’s so hard to figure out how to put the bark on” (Woody Allen)