Corymbia ficifolia

Corymbia ficifolia is a tree from the Myrtaceae family of plants. It is native to Western Australia. They also call it the Red Flowering Gum, Gum Tree, Flowering Gum, Scarlet Gum, Flame Eucalyptus, Scarlet Eucalyptus, or Eucalyptus ficifolia. The name refers to the corymbs of the flowers, and ficifolia refers to the similarity of the leaves to Ficus.

Corymbia ficifolia grows to about 33ft or 10m tall. It has rough bark. The leaves are broad, egg-shaped, glossy, dark green, and lance-shaped. It has bright red clusters of flowers that bloom in the summer. The seeds of Corymbia ficifolia have wings, and the fruit is rather large and barrel-shaped, unlike another eucalyptus.

Ferdinand von Mueller (1825-1896, a German-Australian botanist, named it Eucalyptus ficifolia in 1860, in his book Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae. Ken Hill (1948-2010), the Australian botanist, and Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson (1925-1997), also an Australian botanist, changed the name to Corymbia ficifolia in 1995.

How to grow Corymbia ficifolia:

Grow Corymbia ficifolia in the sun or light shade. Grow in dry to moist, but well-drained soil. It is drought-resistant, salt-tolerant, and deer resistant. It is generally pest-free and disease-free, but watch out for beetle borers, thrip, armillaria, or Phytophthora. It is difficult to propagate from cuttings. Seeds are the best way to propagate but due to this, it is hard to guarantee the color of the flowers which could range from red to orange and pink.