The rainbow eucalyptus, Eucalyptus deglupta, looks as if someone has painted its trunk in vertical strokes of lime green, blue, purple, orange and maroon. The colours are entirely natural: they come from the way this tall rainforest tree sheds its bark, revealing fresh layers that change shade as they age.
Why rainbow eucalyptus bark changes colour
Like many eucalypts, Eucalyptus deglupta sheds its outer bark in strips. Singapore’s National Parks Board explains that the newly exposed bark is bright green, and that it darkens with age through blue, purple and orange to maroon. Because the tree sheds unevenly, patch by patch and at different times, its trunk carries every stage at once.
The result is a constantly shifting pattern. No two trees look alike, and the same trunk changes over the weeks as older strips peel away.
Where the rainbow eucalyptus grows wild
Eucalypts are famous as Australian trees, but this one comes from further north. Kew’s Plants of the World Online records its native range from the Philippines to Papuasia, covering the Philippines (including Mindanao), Sulawesi, the Maluku islands such as Seram, the Lesser Sunda Islands, New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago with New Britain. Its natural range reaches into the Northern Hemisphere, and it is the only eucalyptus that usually grows in rainforest, from sea level up to about 1,800 metres.
That is why its common names include Mindanao gum and rainbow gum, along with local names such as kamarere and bagras. In the wild, populations are fragmented and declining, and in 2019 the IUCN listed the species as Vulnerable.
A giant of the tropical forest
- Height: in its native forests the tree typically reaches 60–78 metres; planted trees in cities such as Singapore are usually 25–40 metres.
- Leaves: evergreen, ovate to lance-shaped, held almost horizontally on the branches.
- Flowers: small and white, with many white to pale yellow stamens, in clusters at the branch tips.
- Fruit: tiny capsules with three or four valves, holding minute winged seeds.
- Uses: it grows fast and is planted widely for pulpwood, especially for white paper, and is the main pulpwood species in Philippine plantations.
Where to see rainbow eucalyptus
The tree cannot tolerate frost, so outside its native range it is planted as an ornamental in warm places such as Hawaii, Florida, Texas and Southern California. On Maui, specimens along the Road to Hāna are a favourite photo stop, and the trees in this gallery were described as growing beside that route. Singapore lists one individual at Katong Park as a Heritage Tree.
When you find one, admire the bark without peeling it. Step back to include the whole trunk, then move in close to one fresh strip to see the green turning to purple.
Our Great Banyan article explores another tree whose growth changes the way we understand its shape. The hot-lips plant offers a smaller botanical surprise, and the season changes colour in another way at Gu Guanyin’s ginkgo tree.
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