Eucalyptus Tree

The subject Eucalyptus Tree (Eucalyptus perriniana), planted in 1968, is the parent tree of all such species of eucalyptus in Seattle, Washington. In 1975, the tree also became the source of the Colvos Creek Nursery’s mail-order seeds, which continue to be shipped throughout the United States. The seeds sent from the nursery assure that well over 1,000 new trees have been propagated around the country from the parent tree. Today, the tree is being threatened by the Washington State Department of Transportation’s current plans to raze the tree in order to widen State Road 520. The story of this tree is endemic of the fate of thousands of specimen trees in Seattle’s Washington Park Arboretum, which was originally designed in 1936 by the Olmsted Brothers firm.