Tasmanian Blue Gum
State Flower of Tasmania
Tasmanian blue gum ... Tasmania's floral emblem
Photograph courtesy of Tourism Tasmania
The Tasmanian blue gum, Eucalyptus glololus Labill, is the island state's floral emblem.
The flowers, larger than those of other Tasmanian eucalypts, usually occur singly in the axils of the leaves. Up to three quarters of an inch in diameter, the flower buds are described as "coarsely ribbed, warty and are, as in all eucalypts, closed by an operculum or cap representing the sepals and petals."
Large numbers of stamens
When the blue gum blooms, the cap is shed revealing large numbers of white stamens arranged in several rows near the outside. A thick nectar-secreting disk extends partly over the top of the ovary.
The blue gum flowers in early summer.
From Tasmania to the world
Found throughout Tasmania, including the historic Royal Hobart Botanical Gardens, the Tasmanian blue gum grows largely in southern and eastern Tasmania and in the middle reaches of the Derwent River. It can grow up to 200 feet.
Introduced overseas, it can be found in California in the United States, in the Mediterranean region and parts of Africa and India, and in Chile, Argentina and New Zealand.
(Source: Parliament of Tasmania.)
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