Mountain ash facts for kids
Eucalyptus regnans, also known as Mountain Ash, is a very tall tree found in Victoria and Tasmania, Australia. It is the tallest flowering plant in the world, often growing over 100 meters (330 feet) high! Other names for this amazing tree include Victorian Ash, Swamp Gum, Tasmanian Oak, or Stringy Gum.
Quick facts for kids Eucalyptus regnans |
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E. regnans
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Contents
What Does a Mountain Ash Tree Look Like?
This evergreen tree is the tallest type of eucalyptus. It can grow between 70 and 120 meters (230-400 feet) tall. It has a straight, grey trunk with smooth bark.
Leaves, Flowers, and Fruit
The leaves are narrow and curved. They end in a point, like a sickle. They can grow up to 14 centimeters (5.5 inches) long and 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) wide. The leaves are green to grey-green and have a red stalk.
The flowers grow in groups of 9 to 15. Each flower is about 1 cm (0.5 inches) wide. They have many white stamens, which look like a ring. The fruit is a hard nut. It is about 9 millimeters (0.5 inches) long and 7 millimeters (0.4 inches) wide.
Where Do Mountain Ash Trees Live?
Mountain Ash trees are found in cool, mountain areas. They like deep soil and lots of rainfall. These areas usually get more than 1200 millimeters (47 inches) of rain each year. They can grow up to 1000 meters (3300 feet) above sea level.
How Fast Do They Grow?
These trees grow very quickly. They can grow more than a meter (3 feet) each year. Some can reach 65 meters (213 feet) in just 50 years! They usually live for about 400 years. Even after they fall, their logs help support many different kinds of life on the forest floor for centuries.
How Mountain Ash Trees Reproduce
Unlike most eucalyptus trees, Mountain Ash trees do not regrow after a fire. They only grow from seeds. These seeds are kept in woody gumnuts. The heat from a fire makes the gumnuts open and release the seeds.
Young Mountain Ash seedlings need a lot of sunlight. Normally, not much light reaches the forest floor because of the tall, old trees. But after a big fire, all the trees might die. This causes many seeds to be released. The new seedlings can then use the nutrients from the ash. After a major fire, up to 2.5 million seedlings can grow in one hectare (2.5 acres).
Over time, competition makes the number of trees go down. Eventually, only about 30 to 40 mature trees remain per hectare. It takes about 20 years for a seedling to grow old enough to make its own seeds. If fires happen too often in the same area, the trees might disappear completely. However, if there are no fires to release seeds, the trees will die after about 400 years. Then, other types of plants will grow in their place.
The Tallest Trees
Eucalyptus regnans is the tallest of all flowering plants. It might even be the tallest plant in the world! However, no living tree can claim that title for sure. The tallest living Mountain Ash tree is named "Centurion." It stands 99.6 meters (327 feet) tall in Tasmania. There are 16 living trees in Tasmania that are taller than 90 meters (295 feet).
The tallest Mountain Ash ever found was the "Ferguson Tree." It was 132.6 meters (435 feet) tall. This tree was found in the Watts River region of Victoria in 1872. It had fallen over, and William Ferguson, an inspector of state forests, measured it. The very top of the tree had broken off. But the trunk was still more than one meter (3 feet) wide. Ferguson thought the tree might have been over 152 meters (500 feet) tall when it was alive.
How People Use Mountain Ash Trees
Eucalyptus regnans is very valuable for its timber. Because of this, many large areas of these trees have been cut down. The wood is mainly used for building and for making woodchips. In the 20th century, it was also used to make newsprint. Most of the woodchips are sent to Japan.
While there are fewer natural forests with very old trees, many new trees are growing. Mountain Ash is now often grown on plantations. Here, the long, straight, fast-growing trunks are more valuable than wood from old forests.
What the Wood is Like
The timber from Mountain Ash is a bit rough, or "stringy." But it is easy to work with. The wood grain is straight, with long, clear sections that do not have knots. This wood also works well for steam-bending. It is used to make furniture, flooring, wood paneling, veneer, plywood, window frames, and for general building.
Images for kids
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Giant mountain ash trees, Blackspur Range, Victoria.
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At 92 meters "The Big Tree" at the center was until recently thought to be the tallest remaining Mountain Ash.
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A taxidermied male Leadbeater's possum
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El Grande in Tasmania's Styx Valley
See also
In Spanish: Eucalyptus regnans para niños
