MAP: MELBOURNE STREET TREES 55

Angophora costata is a common woodland and forest tree of Eastern Australia and is known by a variety of names including smooth-barked apple, rose gum, rose apple or Sydney red gum. It grows primarily on sandstone soils, usually on headlands, plateaus or other elevated areas. Here it is seen growing int he shopping mall of Box Hill, an outer Melbourne suburb.

A. costata differs from the majority of gum trees in that it is not a Eucalyptus, but rather a closely related genus. A. costata is a large, wide, spreading tree. Usually seen of a height between 15 and 25 m. The trunk is often gnarled and crooked with a pink to pale grey, sometimes rusty-stained bark. The timber is brittle and limbs tend to fall readily. In nature the butts of such limbs form callused bumps on the trunk and add to the gnarled appearance. The old bark is shed in spring in large flakes with the new salmon-pink bark turning to pale grey before the next shedding.

More recently, genetic work has been published showing Angophora to be more closely related to Eucalyptus than Corymbia, and the name Eucalyptus apocynifolia has been proposed for this species if it were to be placed in the genus Eucalyptus.

This post is part of the Signs, Signs meme,
and also part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.