The most common eucalypt in cooler parts of north-west Europe, including Britain and Ireland, being among the hardiest in the genus. Aboriginal people once tapped its sap for a fermented drink, hence the common name 'cider'. Also called White Gum. Introduced 1846.

Native to Tasmania where it grows up to about 1,100m asl, where summers are mild and winters cold.

Monoecious. Insect-pollinated. Tiny seeds are gravity- and wind-dispersed.

Large (35m), narrow and rather clumped, with a dominant but sinuous trunk. Bark smooth cream-green with darker orange-grey-brown peeling flakes, rougher at the base. Twigs green-glaucous, becoming rough and silvery. Juvenile leaves broad-elliptic to round, opposite, sessile, green-glaucous. Adult leaves lanceolate to ovate, alternate (5-15cm), dull green-glaucous, mostly held erect. Flowers in threes from leaf axils, silvery, barrel-shaped. Fruit capsule (5-9mm), barrel-shaped, silvery, stalkless. The subspecies divaricata, with smaller, more glaucous foliage, is considered best suited to Britain and Ireland, though seed collection is hard given its endangered status.

Hardy to -18°C with good provenance, and can drop all leaves after extreme cold before recovering. Best grown in milder regions with shelter, as fast-growing limbs are wind-prone. Avoid frost hollows and waterlogged soils. Light-demanding, needing deer protection. It can be coppiced, though young shoots are frost-sensitive and stumps prone to decay; this is one of the less attractive eucalypts, and its rapid growth suits it poorly to small gardens.

No notable associations where introduced.

Susceptible to phytophthora root rot and may also be affected by silver leaf (Chondrostereum purpureum). Highly palatable to deer.

Of interest in short-rotation forestry or coppice systems to produce biomass energy or fibre. Juvenile foliage is used in floristry.