River red gum
Eucalyptus camaldulensis
Family · Myrtaceae · Harmless
The other eucalyptus, the one of riverbanks and southern roads, with a mottled grey-white trunk and an open crown. It takes drought and salinity where common eucalyptus will not, which is why it fills the interior.
Streams and ditches · Roadsides and waste ground · Fields and pasture · Town and roadside
Also known asred gum, Murray red gum
How to tell it
A smooth, grey-white trunk mottled with rust, shedding in plates rather than long strips. Sickle leaves, hanging, grey-green on both sides. Flower buds with a conical beaked cap, the detail that separates it from common eucalyptus.
What it is confused with
Blue gum
Eucalyptus globulus
Bark decides: the common one sheds in long hanging strips, this one flakes in plates. And the common one's juvenile leaves are round and very blue, this one's are narrow from early on.
Open sheet →What it is for
Shade and windbreak in dry zones, and timber. Like common eucalyptus, it is a species not to propagate: it dries watercourses and replaces riparian vegetation.
The law says
An invasive species under the same legal regime as common eucalyptus in Portugal. New plantations are restricted.