Species

Corymbia ficifolia

Common Name(s)

scarlet-flowered gum

Authority

Corymbia ficifolia (F.Muell.) K.D.Hill & L.A.S.Johnson

Family

Myrtaceae

Brief Description

Tree to 30 m or more in good soils. Bark persistent, rough, tessellated, brown. Leaves lack oil glands (hold leaf up to light and use hand lens; a crushed leaf has no smell of eucalyptus oil). Stamens red/scarlet/orange.

Flora Category

Vascular - Exotic

NVS Species Code

CORFIC

The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.

Structural Class

Dicotyledonous Trees & Shrubs

Synonyms

Eucalyptus ficifolia

Distribution

Widely planted in milder parts of New Zealand, especially near the coast

Similar Taxa

C. calophylla (marri) is a very similar tree but has white flowers (in NZ, pink-flowered trees are probably hybrids between it and C. ficifolia). Without flowers, marri appears very similar to Corymbia ficifolia, and both are widely grown in milder parts of New Zealand. The oil glands in the leaves of marri provide easy identification - use hand lens or crush and smell (leaves of C. ficifolia lack oil glands and hence crushed leaves are almost odourless).

Flowering

Late Dec - Feb

Flower Colours

Orange,Red / Pink

This page last updated on 25 Jan 2019