Tallowwood

How to identify a tallowwood

Look for a straight trunk with soft, fibrous, red-brown to grey-brown bark that continues right up into the small branches. Up close, the bark is often flecked with tiny brown, mica-like flakes, a handy clue. Adult leaves are glossy green, lance-shaped and 6 to 15 cm long, darker on top than underneath. Club-shaped buds in clusters of about seven to eleven open to white or pale yellow flowers, followed by small cone- or pear-shaped gumnuts up to about 9 mm long. The gumnut shape and mica flecks help tell it from other stringy-barked eucalypts.

Growing a tallowwood in Brisbane

Tallowwood is a local. It grows naturally from near Cooranbong on the New South Wales coast north to Fraser Island (K'gari) and west to Toowoomba, mostly in tall forest on fertile soils. In Brisbane it suits large properties, parks and koala habitat plantings. It likes full sun, copes with a range of soils and is very hardy, but it grows into a very large tree, so keep it away from houses, pipes and small gardens.

What to watch out for

Size is the big one. Tallowwood commonly grows to about 40 metres and occasionally 60, and Unitywater lists large gum trees among the trees not to plant near water and sewer pipes. Give it plenty of room from the house, pipes and power lines. Any pruning or removal of a big eucalypt over buildings is a job for a professional with the right gear.

• Size. It commonly grows to about 40 metres and occasionally 60, so it isn't suited to small gardens.

Pruning and care

Tallowwood needs little routine pruning. Remove dead, damaged or crossing branches, and lift low limbs gradually if you need clearance, cutting just outside the branch collar. Water young trees until they're established; after that the tree is very hardy and copes with a range of soils. Because of its height, any pruning above ground level is a job for a qualified arborist with the right gear.

• Tree pruning
• Tree removal
• Stump grinding
• Tree health assessment