Eucalyptus deglupta or the “rainbow eucalyptus” is the most colourful tree in the world. The previous season’s bark peels off in strips to reveal a brightly coloured new bark below, with vertical streaks of red, orange, green, purple, blue and grey. Its original homes are the Philippines (particularly Mindanao Island), Indonesia and New Guinea. Now, it thrives in nearly every tropical and subtropical region of the world; Central America, the Caribbean, and South Pacific islands. It is the only eucalyptus species indigenous to the northern hemisphere. It grows quickly, reaching a trunk diameter of 6 feet and soaring to over 200 feet!
What makes these trees intriguing is their colorful bark that looks like a color pencil that’s been sharpened. It starts off as a typical tree with a brown bark until the bark starts to shed in summer, and then the magic of nature happens. As it slowly sheds, it reveals a bright green inner bark that changes color as it ages. At some point, it turns purple, and then after some time it turns orange, and after it has been exposed to the air some more it turns a shade of maroon or blue.
The colorful streaks happen because parts of the bark don’t shed all at once, the entire bark doesn’t peel at the same time. Instead, it peels part by part, little by little, so others that have just recently started peeling would appear green, the rest could be orange or any other color of the rainbow (hence its name) depending on how long it has been exposed to the environment. Once this process of shedding is complete, it goes back to its original brown color until the next cycle. However, people have observed rainbow trees that grow in tropical climates have a brighter and much more colorful bark than those that grow elsewhere.
They are mainly cultivated for its wood used as construction lumber, particle boards, and plywood for making cabinets. As it is also a good source of pulp, some use the tree to produce paper although the product is pure white and not rainbow-colored. In recent years people have also been using these colorful trees as an ornament used mainly for landscape design to add color to an otherwise purely green scenery in the park, and home or botanical gardens.
Credit : World Atlas
Picture Credit : Google
