Botanical atlas

Brooker's Gum

Eucalyptus brookeriana

Brooker's Gum is one of Tasmania's tall wet-forest eucalypts, named for the Australian botanist M.I.H. Brooker, who spent his career mapping and describing the eucalypt family. It has not carried the long, well-documented medicinal history of its famous cousin, Eucalyptus globulus, the Tasmanian Blue Gum whose leaf became a mainstay of colonial and folk respiratory remedies. Instead, Brooker's Gum has traditionally been valued in its home range as a fast-growing timber and shelter tree and as a source of nectar for the region's celebrated eucalypt honeys. Because it shares the same aromatic, oil-rich leaves common to the genus, bruised foliage has sometimes been gathered in the bush the way other eucalypts were, crushed and breathed in for their sharp, clearing scent on a cold or congested day.

Safety.

Eucalyptus leaf and oil are toxic if swallowed and can seriously harm children and pets even in small amounts, so they are never taken internally; undiluted oil should also be kept off the skin, especially on infants.