Jarrah

Description The jarrah is one of the many species of eucalyptus. The jarrah tree usually grows to about 40-50 http://
meters high, with a trunk diameter of three meters. The trunk of the jarrah is long, straight, and www.blueplanetbiome
has no branches on it. The jarrah tree has rough grayish brown bark with vertical grooves, which s.org/jarrah.htm
sheds in long strips.
The leaves of the jarrah tree are about 8 to 13 centimeters long. The top of the leaves are dark
green and the bottom side is lighter. The species name of the plant "marginata" relates to the light
colored vein around the edge of the leaf. The curved leaves are found at the top of the tree
amongst the flowers.
The flowers of a jarrah tree are white with a cone shaped bud cap, 5-9 millimeters long. The
flowers are found in groups of 7-11.

The flowers have a magnificent scent, while the ball shaped fruits grow to about 9-16 millimeters
long. It flowers every other year making it a special event for bees to pollinate it and make honey.
The jarrah tree can live as long as 500 years.

Uses The jarrah tree is mostly used for timber. Jarrah wood makes very durable, strong furniture and http://
building materials, such as wharves, bridges and railroad ties. Before modern asphalt the streets www.blueplanetbiome
of Berlin and London were paved with blocks of jarrah. s.org/jarrah.htm

Another use of the jarrah tree is honey. Every other year when the jarrah flowers bloom,
beekeepers have their bees pollinate the tree and make wonderful honey.
To some animals the jarrah tree is very useful. Birds and other animals use big holes in the jarrah
tree to nest. Feral bees make their hives in holes in the tree. Nectar from the jarrah tree is also a
main food source to many insects, marsupials, and birds

Jarrah timer has been used for sleepers, poles, piles, flooring, panelling, joinery and heavy
furniture (Bootle, 1983).
Distribution

Site Requirement

Growth rate Seeded jarrah had a mean establishment density of 2662 stems ha1 and a density of 2300 stems
ha1 after 13 y, a survival rate of 86%.

Mean annual growth increments (1.52 m2 ha1 seeded, 2.72 m2 ha1 planted) were similar to
those reported for similar aged regrowth forest (2.62 m2 ha1) and higher than older thinned
(0.45 m2 ha1) or unthinned (0.19 m2 ha1) unmined forest.

Eucalyptus marginata has been found to maintain high transpiration rates throughout the dry
Obrien, et al, 2007
summer months (Doley 1967), a strategy facilitated by the maintenance of an extensive root
system that can access water from deep within the soil profile (Dell & Havel 1989). Selection on
the development of deep roots, relative to above-ground biomass, is likely to be stronger in
water-limiting environments and, indeed, plants are often reported to exhibit a higher root to
shoot ratio at drier sites (Chapin, Autumn & Pugnaire 1993; Schenk & Jackson 2002). In the
southern jarrah forest, high mean annual rainfall and low evaporation result in a greater supply of
soil water, and selection may instead favour rapid above-ground growth, driven by competition
for light and other resources. Consistent with this, trees originating from the southern jarrah
forest exhibited faster growth rates than those from northern jarrah forest populations. More
rapid growth is, however, likely to be less sustainable in the drier northern jarrah forest and may
account for the lower survival of southern jarrah forest trees at the trial site.

These values dier slightly from the range reported in the Draft FMP of 30 to 143 tonnes per
hectare for jarrah.
Root system The three-tired root system appears to be under string genetic control as the same basic
architecture is expressed even in deep sands. Consequently, regardless of oil type, or the presence
of shallow impending layers (laterite, clay), root biomass and root length are greater in the first
meter than of depth. Excavations of upland site reveal average biomass of 15 kg dry wt/m3 (Dell,
unpublished). Whereas the majority of the root biomass is accounted for by woody roots over 5
mm in diameter, the reverse is the case for root length. Much of the root length is encountered
close to the soil surface. By contrast here there is considerably less root length below the bauxitic
zones (0.1 to 1/cm3, carbon et al. 1980, Dell et al 1983). However, localized root proliferation at
depth in root channel may trusting with the yellow sapwood. The timber is well known for its
durability and high resistance to decay and insect attack.

Density the density of the wood in the living tree is about 1170 kg/m3, declining to about 820 kg/m3 when
air dry (12% MC, Bootle 1983).

658 kg/m3 Dept of Envt & Cons