blue gum

American  

noun

1. eucalyptus.

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blue gum British  

noun

1. a tall fast-growing widely cultivated Australian myrtaceous tree, Eucalyptus globulus , having aromatic leaves containing a medicinal oil, bark that peels off in shreds, and hard timber. The juvenile leaves are bluish in colour

2. any of several other eucalyptus trees

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Etymology

Origin of blue gum

First recorded in 1795–1805

Example Sentences

And oh, yes, the eucalyptus — the Tasmanian blue gum variety, melancholy and romantic-looking, the Hamlet of trees.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 20, 2025

We came across a row of five stout stumps of 130-year-old blue gum trees that are known as “the Burghers of Prince Albert.”

From New York Times • Apr. 11, 2019

There rises Mount Sutro, an 80-acre hill forested by blue gum eucalyptus trees.

From New York Times • Apr. 6, 2017

A particular sense of color — eggplant, blue, gum pink and yellow — went right back to the teenage boys of his earliest collections.

From New York Times • Jan. 17, 2013

Once, I even saw one of them climb a blue gum pole while upside down, like a spider.

From "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" by William Kamkwamba