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Alpine Ash)
The Alpine Ash (Eucalyptus delegatensis) of southern Australia is a straight, grey-trunked tree, reaching heights of over 90 metres in suitable conditions. Among flowering plants, only the Mountain Ash grows taller, the Manna Gum and the Messmate Stringybark about the same.
The bark is thick and fibrous at the base, smooth on the smaller branches. In the Tasmanian subspecies, the entire trunk and the larger limbs are thick-barked; in the mainland subspecies the rough bark extends only part-way up the trunk.
The nominate subspecies is native to cool, deep soiled, mountainous areas between 1100m and 1300 m in Victoria and New South Wales; E delegatensis tasmaniensis is found in most higher-altitude parts of Tasmania apart from the south-west.
Alpine Ash requires very high rainfall by Australian standards — over 1200mm (47 inches) per year and snow or frosts during the winter months. It is an important tree for the timber industry.
Alpine Ash regenerates only from seed. While occasional fires do not severely impact Alpine Ash forest, repeated fires in the same area can wipe stands out because it takes roughly twenty years for seedlings to reach sexual maturity.
A year after the massive bushfires of 2003 in the Australian Alps, a thick carpet of Alpine Ash seedlings has sprouted in the ashes.
See also: