Did anyone not take care of their kid equipped with colorful markers? Look at this tree! That can’t be normal!
But it is. Eucalyptus deglupta, also called the rainbow eucalyptus, is the most colorful tree you will ever see. Or not see, depending on where you live. Because in contrary to most other eucalyptus trees, this one does not grow in Australia! And it can’t just be found on the southern but also on the northern hemisphere
Where? Well, you can look for it on the Philippines, in Indonesia or in Papua New Guinea. The tree has been exported to some other countries too because of its looks. Who wouldn’t want such a pretty thing in their backyard?
Now, why does it look like this?
The tree can grow up to 60 meters tall and it grows really fast. Did you ever get stretch marks from when you either grew a lot, gained a lot of weight or developed a significant amount of muscle mass? Your skin just couldn’t keep up and ripped a little bit.
Something similar happens to the rainbow eucalyptus. The bark rips and reveals a bright green layer underneath.
This layer starts to darken with time and the color changes from bright green to dark green to blue, purple, orange and maroon. When it reaches the maroon stage it falls off the tree. This happens over and over again. And because it doesn’t happen everywhere at once, the tree develops several streaks of different colors.
I wish my stretch marks would look that pretty!
And what is this tree used for?
As I mentioned before, people like to use it for decoration but the wood can also be used to craft stuff or make paper.
How does the paper look? Colorful?
No. Sadly, it is just as white as normal paper.
How disappointing.
Sources:
The Colorful Life of the Rainbow Eucalyptus
Rainbow Eucalyptus, One of Costa Rica’s Hidden Gems
Picture by amelia
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/amelia525/303049143/) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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