And the findings of Charles Sturt University (CSU) botanist Dr Geoff Burrows overturn long held beliefs about eucalypt regrowth.

It was thought eucalypts sprout new shoots from dormant buds in the outer bark of the tree, just like many Northern Hemisphere trees.

Dr Burrows has found that eucalypts do not have buds in the bark of the larger stems and branches. 

Instead, they have strands of tissue that radiate from the inner core of the tree to the outer bark.

“The greatest bud-forming capacity of these strands is in the inner bark, which is protected from the heat of the fire by the maximum bark thickness,” Dr Burrows said.

“This means that large eucalypt trees could lose one to two centimetres of bark in a fire without damaging these bud-forming structures.”

This unique feature helps to explain why eucalypts are so successful at producing numerous new shoots on their blackened stems in the weeks after a fire, according to Dr Burrows.

The findings of the CSU botanist go against more than half a century of botanical thinking.

“The study provides the first evidence for why eucalypts can produce shoots after various fire intensities and various depths of bark death,” Dr Burrows said.

Dr Burrows’ research was published in the January 2002 issue of the international journal, New Phytologist.