2024 Eucalypt of the Year, Corymbia ficifolia, the incredible Red-Flowering Gum

This Western Australian showstopper is one of the most widely planted eucalypts in Australia and around the world! In the wild, however, it is only found in a very small area of subcoastal woodland and heathland in far southwest Western Australia.

It has dark, glossy leaves reminiscent of a fig tree – hence the name fici (ficus or fig-like) folia (leaves). The huge red or orange blossoms cover the ends of branches in an epic show of summer colour, before falling to reveal huge woody gumnuts.

Across southern Australia, the Red-flowering Gum had a particularly spectacular flowering season in summer 23/24, thanks in part to a wet spring and a mild summer.  Honeyeaters and bees were as ecstatic as we were at their abundant and joyful flowering.

The Red-flowering Gum is a fantastic choice for streets, parks and gardens, and there are even dwarf varieties that can be grown in pots!  Dwarf varieties grow to between 2 and 4 metres (on average) and others can grow up 12 metres although averages don’t always to individuals!   It has a dense, shade-giving canopy and dark, non-shedding bark. Hybrid and grafted cultivars exist across a range of pinks, oranges and reds and can be planted in a wider range of climates and soils than the wild Red-flowering Gum.

Congratulations to the passionate #FriendsofFicifolia on social media, who have been campaigning for the Red-flowering Gum right from the first National Eucalypt Day!

This is the first time in seven years that a Corymbia has won.  In second place, the Red-flowering Gum was followed closely by another Western Australian endemic, the Silver Princess. Rounding out the medal-winners is the iconic Ghost Gum!  This is the first time in seven years that a Corymbia has won.

Impossible to short-list, we tried our best regardless to derive this list of 10 urban champions for the 2024 Eucalypt of the Year poll.

Image courtesy of Richard McLennan

It’s one of the most distinctive of all the eucalypts, with its dark red bud caps, bright yellow flowers arranged in four tufts, and heavy, woody fruits. It’s totally unique, and not closely-related to any other species of eucalypt.

You can find the Illyarrie in its native home on the west coast of Australia, between Perth and Shark Bay, where it grows on almost pure limestone. However, it’s often planted ornamentally in cities such as Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Alice Springs. The species is very tolerant of drought and rapidly responds to fire by reshooting new growth from the trunk and branches.

For many, the image of Snow Gums, with their limbs, over which reds, whites, yellows, greens and greys flow like rivulets, partially buried under snow or in bent, windswept shapes on saddles, is synonymous with the Australian high country; yet this species grows from southern Queensland to Tasmania in diverse environmental conditions. Many Snow Gums will never see snow, though all will be dusted with their own snowfall of simple white flowers (the specific name pauciflora (‘few flowers’) is a misnomer). Across latitudes and altitudes, the species explores many forms. As well as the twisted mallee form synonymous with the windy, scorching or frosted high country, the species can grow as a thick, single-trunked forest tree up to 30 m.

Image courtesy Catherine Cavallo

With the most widespread distribution of any eucalypt in Australia, the river red gum is one of our best known Australian plants and has been celebrated in art, music, poetry and prose.

In flooded rivers, their roots protect young fish from predators, while high in the branches birds and possums play.  A scar or broken bough becomes a hollow home for marsupial, reptile or bird and submerged logs host giant barramundi and Murray cod.