What makes a gum tree a gum tree....

Primarily a flower with no petals but instead a fused cap over the showy stamens. These caps fall of as shown in this photo. The flowers develop into gum nuts. The leaves have oil glands which produce eucalypt oil. They are an essentially Aussie plant......

[FBailey]

Amazing ... I am learning a lot here!

[Loopy-Lou]

Awesome closeup

[Taffy]

I've just learned something new! Thanks!

[Suzanne]

Cool looking flower and great information

[Ann H. LeFevre]

We have eucalyptus oil in our diffuser every night- so it's interesting to see the source here. It might be sticky, but it is rather pretty!

[Rob Z]

@fbailey Hi FB - thanks for having a look - I'm glad you found it interesting. :)

[Rob Z]

@bizziebeeme Thanks for your comment - they are pretty good up close! :)

[Rob Z]

@taffy Hi Taffy - I'm glad you found it interesting. They are an iconic tree for us. Cheers Rob

[Rob Z]

@suzanne234 Hi Suzanne - they are cool - and come in all different sizes and quite a few different colours. They define our environment over here. Cheers Rob

[Rob Z]

@olivetreeann Hi Ann - eucalyptus oil is so good for so many things - and fabulous in a diffuser! :)

[Casablanca]

What a fascinating shot and information, thank you.

[Ulrika]

what a cool shot!

[Ribel May]

Cool shot once again!

[Rob Z]

@casablanca @ulla @ribelmay Hi Casablanca, Ulrika and May- thanks for your interest and comments. This shot was a bit lucky - usually the buds and flowers are so high up that you can't get at them - this is on one of our baby trees that we planted five years ago - all grown up now and flowering!! Cheers and thanks again.