Dollar Eucalyptus Tree Issue

Question

Hello and thank you very much for the opportunity to ask my questions. I’ve attached four photos. I have three small Dollar Eucalyptus trees in the back patio and they all have these slits in their bark. My back patio is subject to the tremendous gale force desert winds we get here in Henderson, NV so I’ve tried to brace the trees so they don’t get blown over. Could these slits be a result of wind stress bending? Or sadly, a fungus or canker or stress? They are only about 1.5 years old. The leaves seem to look okay. Not sure if they are supposed to or not but the trees did not lose their leaves over winter. These trees have to endure the horrendous summer desert heat here so that may be a complication when it comes to watering, getting too much or not enough. Since these are small trees, not sure if I need to prune extensively or not? But my main concern are the vertical slits in the bark each have and what that means for the future… Thank you!

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Answer 1

The bark of eucalyptus trees does get craggy and peels. Yours looks similar to the normal photo in the article below.

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/eucalyptus-cinerea/

Here is an article about bark splitting, but that is more common in cherry or maple trees. But you might like to compare the information.

http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/factsheets/barksplitting.pdf