The White Eucalyptus of the Vil.la Amelia Gardens

A trunk 5.2 metres round on a tree planted in 1904 tells you what a blue gum does when nothing stops it. Eucalyptus globulus is native to Tasmania and a strip of southern Victoria, and it was planted all over the Mediterranean from the 19th century onward for one reason: speed. Nothing else put up timber and shade that fast. Most were cut long before they got old. This one was left alone, and 122 years later it carries the thickest trunk of the protected trees in the Vil.la Amelia gardens at only 18 metres tall, wide rather than high. The bark is the thing to look at. Blue gums shed in long ribbons through the summer, leaving a smooth grey-white surface underneath that looks polished, and the strips hang off the trunk for weeks before they drop. Crush a fallen leaf and it smells like a cold remedy, which is no coincidence: this is the eucalyptus the oil is named for. It has stood here since the garden was the private Quinta Amelia, through the estate's expropriation, the demolition of the mansion and the 1970 redesign that turned the grounds into a public park. Barcelona catalogued it in 1994, and it is one of the few trees in the city that arrived from the far side of the world and outgrew the locals.