Eucalyptus tree

mystang89 · Sun Feb 15, 2015 1:31 pm

Hey again,
I was enjoying my Eucalyptus tea today when I thought it would be really nice to be able to enjoy it whenever I wanted. I figured the tea came from the leaves of the Eucalyptus plant so just thought I'd buy one, plant it and take leaves from it. Ahhh the lovely dream I had. Then I woke up, saw that the TREE could grow to over 150' in height lol. So I started looking for slightly smaller versions of said tree since I really don't think having a 150' tree growing out of my roof would really go well with...well, pretty much anyone or anything. I found this cute little guy, Eucalyptus Vernicosa, which might just fit in my house

I was wondering however, after looking through a plethora of information, if those leaves could be used for tea or if only the leaves from the Melaleuca Alternifolia?

Thanks!

rainbowgardener · Fri Feb 27, 2015 8:55 am

I just found this post. I think there is some confusion here. If the tea you have drinking is from leaves of Melaleuca Alternifolia, it is NOT eucalyptus tea. Melaleuca is commonly known as tea tree and its oil is tea tree oil. It is not very closely related to eucalyptus at all. They are both in the myrtle family Myrtaceae, but in separate genera.

Melaleuca has many medicinal properties as antibacterial and antifungal. Despite the name it is not commonly used for tea, more often topically. Tea tree infusion (tea

) is sometimes drunk as a sore throat remedy, but you wouldn't want to over do it, since it can be toxic in larger amounts or higher concentrations.

Melaleuca alternifolia is an evergreen shrub or small tree. It can be grown in warm climates or in containers to bring in in the winter in cold climates. It can grow to 6 m tall, but if kept in a container it will be stunted and will not grow that big. Or its height can be controlled by pruning.

mystang89 · Sat Feb 28, 2015 3:01 pm

I post this while I laugh at myself for my stupidity but after reading what you told me about the EUCALYPTUS tree I was thinking of EUCHINACEA tee. I'm going to walk away now..very slowly, and shake my head.....

rainbowgardener · Sat Feb 28, 2015 4:06 pm

If you mean Echinacea, it is very medicinal herb, very good for healing colds and flu and building immune system AND it is very easy to grow. It isn't a tree, it is coneflower.

purple coneflower, Echinacea purpurea

but before you specified maleleuca and Echinacea is not that either. You are confusing me