Scarlet Flowering Eucalyptus

Scarlet Flowering Eucalyptus

When our friend Joanne was visiting us a couple of weeks ago from Minnesota, she was impressed by the brilliant red flowers on a large tree a couple of houses down from ours.

We had noticed that the flowers were extremely popular with the bees and hummingbirds, but didn't know what it was.  Turns out its a Scarlet Flowering Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus ficifolia).

It has dark green, leathery leaves year round, which also means that it is perpetually shedding those leaves on the neighbors' lawn.  I guess that's only fair, since her shrubs are constantly shedding leaves on our driveway.

The tree is resistant to the Eucalyptus Longhorn Borer.  It's a very drought-tolerant tree, but it does not tolerate freezing temperatures, which means Joanne will just have to come back to San Diego to see more of them.

One feature of these trees that has fascinated me for years is the interesting bell-shaped seed pods I have found.  I keep wondering how to make jewelry out of them.