Eucalyptus stricta: is a member of the Myrtaceae family and is known as the Blue Mountains Mallee.
Eucalyptus stricta is a mallee with a number of upright stems. The bark is smooth and cream-green to brown. Buds are carried in clusters from 3 to 11. White flowers are profuse, white to cream and about 1.5 centimetres across. Summer to autumn is the flowering period. The gum nuts, or capsules, are almost globular with slightly protruding valves.
Eucalyptus stricta is a handsome small tree and is similar in appearance to Eucalyptus approximans and Eucalyptus codonocarpa.
In cultivation plants may develop a single trunk. Coppicing (cutting off the trunk about 45 centimetres above the ground) will encourage multiple stems to develop. The plant should be at least two years old before coppicing. This allows the lignotuber (swollen root mass) to develop.
The specimen illustrated is growing in one of our gardens. This plant is about 1.5 metres tall with two stems. Buds developed 3 years after planting.
The Blue Mountains Mallee is small enough to be cultivated in suburban backyards.
Eucalyptus stricta is common in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney (as the common name implies) and usually occurs on sandstone within 160 kilometres of Sydney.
Many specimens, in their natural habitat, have numerous stems arising from a huge lignotuber (swollen root mass) that may be one metre in diameter.
Propagate from seed.

Plants