The beautiful mountain ash

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While visiting William Ricketts Sanctuary in the Dandenong Ranges near Melbourne, we saw some magnificent trees. One of these was the straight-trunked mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans), also known as swamp gum or stringy gum, an indigenous tree native to Tasmania and Victoria. It regularly reaches 85 metres (279 ft), with the tallest living specimen, in Tasmania, the Centurion, standing 99.82 metres (327.5 feet) tall. It is the tallest flowering plant, the tallest species of gum tree (eucalypt) and the tallest hardwood in the world. It has smooth grey bark with a ‘stocking’ of rough brown bark. It is sometimes called Tasmanian oak and is used for furniture, flooring, panelling and general construction as well as woodchipping. It was also once a major source of newsprint. A study has shown that the mountain ash forests in Victoria’s Central Highlands are unbeatable at locking up carbon. The trees cannot reshoot after intense fire but can only regenerate by seed. Trees that escape severe fire may live in excess of 500 years.