E. ficifolia in Coogee Coastal reserve

E. Ficifolia in Coogee Coastal reserve

E. ficifolia flowers

Housesitting in Coogee, taking the dog for a walk in the coastal reserve, it's just down the hill. There's some really nice native tress there. Particularly stunning at the time of year is, what I think is, Eucalyptus ficifolia. The picture in "Australian Plants for Mediterranean Climatic Gardens" (Rodger Elliot) looks the same, except the centre of the flowers are black in his picture. Elliot recommends planting E. ficifolia with shade loving ground covers. For example, "Goodenia ovata, most of the Correa reflexa selections and Phebalium squamulosom subspc. argenteum." Could make a nice arrangement for a garden? Although on further investigation it turns out all three of his recommendations are from the eastern states (of Australia)...dry climates though. I suppose it depends how regional one wants things to be. Anyway, his recommendations look something like this (the first picture is of the full E. ficifolia tree that I took this morning, the others off the web, the pictures are in order of mention above)...

I've since spoken to a local expert and she confirmed this is E. ficifolia and would be good for relatively small gardens.