Eucalyptus pauciflora (Yorkshire Arboretum, June 2023). Image John Grimshaw.

[Eucalyptus pauciflora] E mitchelliana Cambage

A very rare species in the wild state, found only on Mt Buffalo in Victoria at about 4,000 ft. It is a tree to about 50 ft high, with a smooth, white bark; the young branches are drooping, hence the popular name. Adult leaves 3 to 6 in. long, scarcely {1/2} in. wide, green. Buds cylindrical or tapered at both ends. Fruit globular to barrel-shaped.E. stellulata Sieber Black Sally. – A species closely allied to the preceding but not so elegant; and differing in the broader and shorter leaves, which are elliptical to broadly lanceolate, up to 3 in. long and 1 in. wide. It is a native of Victoria and New South Wales.Both these species are in cultivation. E. mitchelliana is an ornamental eucalypt of great promise, which is growing well at Glendoick in E. Perthshire and suffered no damage there in the winters of 1961–3.

subsp. debeuzevillei (Maiden) L.A.S. Johnson & Blaxell

The Snow Gums are not only about the hardiest of eucalypts but fortunately also among the most attractive for horticulture, their pale bark being the most outstanding feature. Of all of them, subsp. debeuzevillei is accounted as being probably the hardiest – by the Gum Group (2007) at least – with trees having been known to survive –25 ºC in Germany (G. Cooper, pers. comm. 2007), and very limited damage seen at the long-term trial plantations by the Forestry Commission at Thetford, Norfolk (Evans 1986). It should be noted, however, that this taxon has a relatively wide distribution, and not all provenances will give reliably hardy plants. In Oregon, material from some provenances has been killed at –7ºC, but the population growing near the summit of Mount Ginini in the Australian Capital Territory has been known to experience –16 to –23ºC in the wild, and trees from this source have resprouted from –30ºC in Cincinnati (S. Hogan, pers. comm. 2007). It is from locations such as this that seed should be sought. Seed is freely available in commerce and subsp. debeuzevillei is now seen in garden centres throughout the United Kingdom, usually as a gangly pot-bound young tree with a conspicuous label; it is also offered by many North American nurseries. Although not necessarily a large tree in the wild, it can achieve respectable sizes in cultivation. Several 16 m specimens are recorded throughout England by TROBI, including trees at Wisley and Marwood Hill, and there is one of 13–14 m at Logan. It will thrive best where there is excellent drainage.

The botanical differences between subsp. debeuzevillei and the better-known subsp. niphophila are relatively slight and of minimal horticultural importance. The bark is almost equally good in subsp. debeuzevillei, forming striking patterns, and the young growths can be very white-waxy. A form from Mount Buffalo, Victoria has more rounded foliage than normal, and orange new growth (Gum Group 2007).

Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. debeuzevillei.

The bole of a specimen of Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. debeuzevillei planted c. 1972 in Alexandra Park, Hastings, UK; March 2012. Image Owen Johnson.

var. nana Blakely

A dwarf, mallee-like form reported to flower and fruit when only 6 ft high and further differing from the type in the narrower leaves ; in the short-stalked or almost sessile umbels; and the top-shaped fruits. Found in one locality in New South Wales at 3,500 ft.E. niphophila Maiden & Blakely E. coriacea var. alpina F. v. Muell. Snow Gum. – An alpine species confined to high altitudes in the mountains of Victoria and New South Wales (where it ascends to 6,500 ft on Mt Kosciusko). In this respect it differs from E. pauciflora, which, though reaching as high as 5,500 ft, has its main distribution at lower altitudes. From that species E. niphophila is also distinguished by the green juvenile leaves and by the silvery bloom that covers the young stems.E. niphophila was first described in 1929; previous to that it had been regarded as part of E. pauciflora and only in recent years has it come into prominence. By any standard it is one of the most beautiful of the eucalypts that can be grown in this country and perhaps the hardiest; in very few gardens did it suffer any damage in the winters of 1961–3. ‘E. niphophila … is the gem in my collection of eucalypts. The glossy leaves reflect sunlight like small mirrors: the branchlets in winter are glossy dark red to orange-red; when growth starts in the spring they turn bluish-white with a glaucous bloom which may be rubbed off by branch movement in gales but is renewed by exudation during the growing season: branches which have not yet started bark-shed are also covered with the same glaucous bloom much of which persists through the winter: naked buds and leaf petioles are orange, newly opened leaves mahogany red to light brown …’ (R. C. Barnard, Journ. R.H.S., Vol. 91, p. 296). Mr Barnard adds that this species grows rather slowly for two years but thereafter at 3 to 4 ft annually. The seed germinates poorly unless given cold, moist stratification for four to six weeks.The ultimate height of this species in cultivation is uncertain, but it will almost certainly exceed the 20 ft given as the maximum attained in its natural habitat.