Originally posted by Lord Lucan I'm a bit confused Those are Eucalyptus trees, but in Mountain Ash forest? I take it that there are also Mountain Ash (=Rowan) trees there.
Originally posted by RobA_Oz You’d be even more surprised to know they’re also called Tasmanian Oak. Simple explanation: lack of imagination on the part of early British colonists.
As Rob said, the common name used in Victoria, Mountain Ash, is a colonial legacy (as is the name of the State). These are Eucalyptus regnans.
There are hundreds of species of eucalypts in Australia, consisting of the genera Eucalyptus, Angophora and Corymbia. They occur from the most arid places to the wettest, from plains to the highest peaks, and range from small trees to the mighty regnans, the tallest angiosperm (flowering plant) in the world.
Hard to tell from the photo what the species is in the plantation near you. Blue gums (E. globulus species) are commonly used in plantations. The Southern or Tasmanian blue gum (E.globulus globulus) can grow to 70m.