r/australianplants • u/Mountain_Text_3172 • 3d ago
Do I have a sick Gumtree?
The tree is shedding lots of very thick bark and plenty of dead small branches are falling.
I've included a pic of some of the recent bark it has shed, which is thicker than my thumb.
There are also deep cracks up the trunk from almost ground level and then the lowest limb has some kind of deep rot with fungus in it.
I'm unsure what type of gum it is, but it's not a smooth bark variant I'm pretty sure. Keen for some opinions 🙏🏼
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u/Mountain_Text_3172 3d ago
Thanks, I'll try and get some extra shots 👍🏼
Getting an arborist onto it, but he's gonna be a few weeks yet, so thought I'd get some opinions in the meantime.
The decline of the vitality of the tree has been very apparent in the past year, with visitors to our house commenting on it. But that decay and fungus on the first major limb is a concern as it has advanced quite quickly and that's a very large limb that overhangs my kids bedrooms.
The weight of the rest of the tree would see it fall onto our neighbour's house 😐
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u/CartographerUpbeat61 3d ago
I have seen large areas of decay on my own tree and this year it’s won the battle . So hang in there , it might do it by itself. Very resilient.. La Niña was a bit tough for them..
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u/64-matthew 3d ago
I've been in Horticulture for years. The cracks are only in the bark. It cracks, it falls off and does it again next year. The tree expands as it grows. The bark being dead doesn't so cracks and falls off.
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u/CartographerUpbeat61 3d ago
This particular gum tree is the same as mine . It sheds its bark every summer .. it will be a lovely orange underneath and then fade to grey … all trees have some sort of disease and dead wood .. it’s they grow..
after 3 years of La Niña and all this rain in the ground mine has taken off and it’s huuuuuge .. so big deep gaps in the bark … hopefully it will pick up wth this warm summer and heal and grow healthy… dead wood is normal.
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u/Fit-Phase4622 11h ago
I’m not an arborist but those cracks look huge. I’d be worried about borers getting into it or water rotting it.
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u/Fit-Phase4622 11h ago
With trees better safe than sorry. My daughter has a massive gum in the backyard of her rental. The trunk is absolutely rotten. When you turn the hose on it water seeps out like it’s coming out of pours . She has reported it to the real estate agent multiple times and they do nothing.
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u/citationstillneeded 3d ago
We would need some photos of leaves, gumnuts, and/or flower buds to identify your tree positively. To me it looks like maybe a Blake's Redgum / Eucalyptus blakelyi, or maybe E. tereticornis. Again, guessing.
The bark shedding and cracking is of no concern - normal. Small deadwood also normal and no concern.
You do have some decay and a bracket fungus, probably Phellinus or Ganoderma spp. which is more concerning. I think the tree looks vigorous enough that you could expect to retain it for another 10-20 years at least, unless it declines further.
Don't take advice online, hire a consulting arborist to have a look at it and maybe climb the tree if you're worried. I think do nothing is still probably the best approach though.