I never expected to be writing my first 2006 blog about what I fondly call the AussieBastard tree, but it’s made an unremarked-upon appearance in so many TV news bulletins over this weekend of storm watches, that I figured it was worth a warble.

The Australian blue gum has such a wide presence here in the West in part because the University of California Experiment Station gave out thousands of the seeds and seedlings at the turn of the last century, according to a 1997 book by CSU, Stanislaus, librarian and archivist, Robert L. Santos.

By 1956, as a Sunset Magazine article in August that year attests, the groves of eucalypts were quite a tourist attraction. Even today, as my daily BART pulls out of SFO, I hear incredulity in the voices of Aussie tourists when they see the huge specimens we pass by. Especially if it’s a foggy day.

For therein lies the problem: eucalypts evolved to live in drought conditions.

Although we’re more accustomed to blame the eucalypts for the ferocity of fires such as the one in Oakland in 1991, the debris these trees shed is a huge nuisance in wet weather too. Not just because of the amount of it, but also because of the nature of the shedded material.

One of the primary characteristics of ecualypts is their tough evergreen leaves. The leaves do not break down quickly and are large enough to get stuck on top of drainage grills, along with the quantities of eucalyptus bark that the trees also shed in long strips during summer and fall.

And as if that is not enough, branches are so easily broken off the trees that you merely have to throw a weighted rope over one and give a sharp tug. In fact, in Australia, the blue gum is known as the widow maker because of the number of deaths caused by falling branches.

I live in an apartment block that is surrounded by a grove of eucalypts and I can attest to the amount of material that was washed on top of the drain in our driveway–causing it to flood–and to the number of small branches that were blown down onto our street this weekend.

I suspect that larger debris causes a problem in more rural areas. Because eucalypts have evolved to retain water efficiently, even a freshly cut branch will immediately sink because of its weight. That doesn’t seem to augur well for the waterways most eucalypts are planted close to, for the branches would clog them in a way that’s not easy to clear.

The root system of the blue gum is extremely efficient at getting water in parched areas–one deep tap root and a hugely spreading system of near-the-surface roots. But that spells disaster in water-sodden ground with the extra weight of the wood, and high winds.

I’m sure there are many reasons that can be tied to the severity of floods in areas such as the Russian River watershed, for example. Some of them will be controversial and get the most media attention.

But if you’re looking for controversy to bring viewers to your news story, then even the California blue gum saga can fulfill your needs. Their pendulous branches and leaves are, after all, the favored resting place of monarch butterflies on their migration along the Western coast.