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Closely related to E. saligna, producing a rich red-brown durable heartwood. Form not as good as E. saligna but E. botryoides is fairly resistant to wind, including salt-laden wind. Fast growing, comparable with radiata pine.

Health: Susceptible to a range of insect pests. There are provenances available in Northland that offer good resistance to these. Susceptible to browsing by possums at all ages.

Timber: Medium density. Heartwood rich red with interlocked grain, very decorative and hard. Sometimes the interlocked grain can cause processing problems. Large logs are preferred by processors because of low sawn recoveries due to large core of compression wood and wide sapwood band. The heartwood is moderately durable and suitable for decking, flooring and structural applications. Because the sapwood is white, this is usually excluded for appearance applications. However, the sapwood is resistant to lyctus borer so can be used for internal applications such as flooring.

Mechanical properties (dry wood)
Species Density (dry) Bending strength, MoR (MPa) Stiffness, MoE (GPa) Hardness, Janka (kN)
Eucalyptus botryoides 675 100 13.5 6.75

Siting: E. botryoides grows best in moist sites and can tolerate fairly poor soil drainage. It also grows well in soils with low fertility, provided the soil has some depth. However, fairly adaptable to a wide range of soil conditions, including drier clays. Best form is in sheltered sites but E. botryoides is tolerant of wind.

Steep slopes: Suitable for steep slopes, a coppicing species with fast growth rates. Well-suited to continuous cover forestry because of high timber value, adaptability to a range of sites and fast growth rates.

Species characteristics: Fast growing, yielding a high quality rich red heartwood but with low sawn recoveries. Prefers sites with good soil moisture and can grow in poorly drained (but not swampy) soils.

Recommended regime: Plant at 1600-2000 stems per hectare. Thin in 3-4 stages down to 400-600 stems per hectare. This gives a 4:1 thinning ratio. Because available seedlines are unimproved, a high initial stocking is recommended for a sufficiently high thinning ratio and greater selection for growth and form. Lower tree stockings require costly form pruning for sufficient quality in residual crop trees.

For clearwood production prune potential crop trees to 6-8m in 3-4 lifts and thin down to 300 pruned stems per hectare. However, although pruning improves grade recoveries from those logs, this is not necessary to produce clearwood because trees self-prune provided tree stocking is sufficiently high to induce this. The tradeoff is therefore between the cost of pruning and higher establishment costs. A higher thinning ratio also provides greater selection for growth and form so a high initial tree stocking is recommended.

Key message: Best planted on moderately fertile sites with good soil depth and moisture, but adaptable to a range of conditions and sites. Because of variable form a high initial stocking is required for selection of well formed, fast growing trees.

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