Rainbow eucalyptus trees (Eucalyptus deglupta) shed their bark at a strip at a time, and the tree trunks look stripy as a result. That’s not all, however—the stripe colors can vary surprisingly much. A freshly revealed area will look bright pale green, which then darkens and changes to orange, red, brown, and grey or blue.
Rainbow eucalyptuses are native to the Philippines, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea, but have been planted elsewhere in suitable climates.
Amazing, aren’t they? I wonder whether the Weta artists looked at rainbow eucalyptus trees as an inspiration for their saturated, weird Mirkwood trees for the Hobbit movies. (They talked about the design in the behind-the-scenes documentaries; the movies as released are too dark to see the colors properly, if memory serves.)
Images: Two eucalyptuses by spencer9 via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0). Closeup by Jean-François Schmitz via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
Out There is an occasional feature highlighting intriguing art, spaces, places, phenomena, flora, and fauna.
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