Out of place?...

Several trees on the side of War Memorial Drive, in North Adelaide, attracted my attention because of the bright yellow flower buds which seemed to be prolific. These trees I have identified tentatively as E. stricklandii, Goldfields Yellow flowering Gum, or Sticklands Gum. These trees are among the usual inhabitants of city parks, the weeds, brought in to fill a perceived gap in local vegetation, drought hardiness, coming as it does from the Western Australian goldfields are around Coolgardie and Norseman.

The flower buds are bright yellow in the sun, about 2 to 2.5cm long, penile in shape, the caps are the same length as the base, although the caps are larger and brighter in colour. Seven seems to be their lucky number, the central bud is at right angles to the other six which are hexagonally spread around the peduncle. The peduncle is broad and flat, odd really. The flowers are yellow, although these trees haven’t flowered as yet. These flowers apparently are good nectar producers, which is probably why they have been imported from WA.
The old fruit is bell or urn shaped, with recessed valves under a nice cap. The valves split 4 ways when revealed. Mature fruit is quite large, these are about 3cm long and 1.5 in diameter. They cluster quite thickly on the branches, which means quite a lot of seed will be shed at release.
Leaves are longish, up to 150mm, sort of light green, although the young leaves are purple in the right light. Branches are a bright red-brown, especially where new growth is occurring. The older branches are dull, with a dark stem at the base of the tree. Not sure what to make of these trees, because they are in a public park, however, it is very dry at the moment and the trees seem to be doing quite well. It is an interesting question, whether we should maintain biological integrity by planting only locally indigenous plants, or whether we should mix and match according to our perceptions of the vagaries of the climate.