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Eucalypts are woody plants belonging to three closely related genera: Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus is a diverse genus of Flowering plant trees in the Myrtus family, Myrtaceae. Members of the genus dominate the tree flora of Australia....
, Corymbia
Corymbia

Corymbia is a genus of about 113 species of tree that were classified as Eucalyptus species until the mid-1990s. It includes the bloodwoods, ghost gums, spotted gums amongst others....
 and Angophora
Angophora

Angophora is a genus of ten species of trees or large shrubs in the myrtle family , native to eastern Australia. It is closely related to Corymbia and Eucalyptus, and all three are often referred to as "eucalypts"....
.

In 1995 new evidence, largely genetic, indicated that some prominent Eucalyptus species were actually more closely related to Angophora than to the other eucalypts; they were split off into the new genus Corymbia. Although separate, the three groups are allied and it remains acceptable to refer to the members of all three genera Angophora, Corymbia and Eucalyptus as "eucalypts"

Koala
Eucalypt leaves are low in protein and high in toxins.






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Encyclopedia


Eucalypts are woody plants belonging to three closely related genera: Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus is a diverse genus of Flowering plant trees in the Myrtus family, Myrtaceae. Members of the genus dominate the tree flora of Australia....
, Corymbia
Corymbia

Corymbia is a genus of about 113 species of tree that were classified as Eucalyptus species until the mid-1990s. It includes the bloodwoods, ghost gums, spotted gums amongst others....
 and Angophora
Angophora

Angophora is a genus of ten species of trees or large shrubs in the myrtle family , native to eastern Australia. It is closely related to Corymbia and Eucalyptus, and all three are often referred to as "eucalypts"....
.

In 1995 new evidence, largely genetic, indicated that some prominent Eucalyptus species were actually more closely related to Angophora than to the other eucalypts; they were split off into the new genus Corymbia. Although separate, the three groups are allied and it remains acceptable to refer to the members of all three genera Angophora, Corymbia and Eucalyptus as "eucalypts"

Bushfires


Eucalypts are atuned to fire in several ways:

  • Firstly, their seeds are often held in an insulated capsule, which is only opened in response to and after the devastation of a bushfire
    Bushfire

    A bushfire is a fire that occurs in The Bush . In south east Australia, bushfires tend to be most common and most severe during summer and autumn, in drought years, and particularly severe in El Ni?o years....
    , which once cooled down is a freshly fertilised seed bed.


  • Secondly, oils in their leaves tend to make the fire more severe and damaging to less atuned species, especially with leaves dropped to the ground.


  • Thirdly, a fire generally does not kill a eucalypt tree as it has buds under the bark of the trunk and branches waiting to sprout new leaves that quickly keep the tree alive.


These advantages work well in areas affected by long dry spells, but less so in wetter rain forest areas.

Koala


Eucalypt leaves are low in protein and high in toxins. The only big eater of Eucalypt leaves is the Koala
Koala

The Koala is a wikt:thickset arboreal marsupial herbivory native to Australia, and the only Extant taxon representative of the family Phascolarctidae....
, which only eats some varieties, and then again, only some of the time. These toxins in turn make the Koala unpleasant to eat.

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