Common name:
Manna Gum, Ribbon Gum

Family name:
Myrtaceae

Botanical name:
Eucalyptus viminalis

Flowering/fruiting season:

Location:
High mountain gullies near water (Burbidge & Gray, 1976:270)

Use:

• Food, medicine, technology, magic
• 'Sweet crumbly white manna gum exudes from the bark; eaten raw. … manna available in summer, but only in small quantities in the Canberra-Monaro region.' (Flood, 1980:96)



Photo by Murray Fagg

• 'Long thin leaves were laid on fires and the smoke was believed to reduce fever.' (Zola & Gott, 1992:55)
• Bark used to make shields (Gott, 1995)
• Flowers used in magic (Hercus in Gott, 1995)

Notes:

• Manna available summer and early autumn (Oates & Seeman, 1979:25)
• '… best source of Eucalyptus leaf manna … several other species known to produce the sugary material. Manna occurs only where the leaf has been damaged by an insect, not at site of other wounds. It accumulates as small white nodules, occasionally reaching the size of a pea … several sugars present, raffinose predominates.' (Cribb & Cribb, 1987:220).

Language names:
balug : 'white gum' S. Ngarigu (Hercus, 1969)

Horticulture :
'Excellent shade tree for parks' (Wrigley & Fagg, 1989:542)

Similar species:

Use code:
GUM

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