Water Gum

Tristaniopsis laurina 'Luscious', the glossy evergreen small tree that screens a two-storey neighbour and keeps its roots to itself.

Tristaniopsis laurina 'Luscious' · Also known as Kanooka, Luscious Water Gum, Tristaniopsis

The water gum is one of those quietly excellent trees that professionals reach for far more often than homeowners have heard of, an upright, glossy-leaved native that does the difficult job of screening at height while behaving impeccably at ground level. The 'Luscious' selection is the one you'll usually find in nurseries, chosen for its larger, deep-green, tropical-looking leaves and its dense, tidy habit, and it also answers to kanooka, the older name for the species that grows along creek lines up and down the east coast.

We use it constantly on the narrow, overlooked blocks that Brisbane keeps subdividing into, because it grows tall and slim enough to interrupt an upstairs sightline without the width or the destructive roots that make bigger trees a liability near a house. It's a mainstay of our advice on screening a double-storey neighbour and on where to plant a tree precisely because it gives you height where you need it and no trouble where you don't.

In a Brisbane garden

What earns the water gum its place here is the combination that's genuinely hard to find: real screening height on a slim footprint, glossy evergreen foliage that looks lush all year, and a root system that stays polite. At roughly five to eight metres with an upright crown, it reaches upper-storey windows on a narrow block or a side boundary where a spreading tree simply won't fit, and because the roots aren't the water-seeking kind that lift slabs and hunt pipes, you can plant it close to a driveway, a path or the house without the anxiety that comes with the big fast growers. New growth flushes an attractive coppery-bronze before hardening to deep green, and clusters of small yellow flowers arrive in summer.

It isn't a set-and-forget desert plant, and it's fairer to say so: the water gum's natural home is along creek banks, so while it's tough once established, it does best with reasonable soil and a deep drink through a long Brisbane dry rather than being left to fend for itself in the worst hot corner of the yard. Give it that and it rewards you with dense, dependable, evergreen screening for decades, which is exactly why it's a first pick when someone needs privacy up high without a fortress.

How we design with it

We plant water gum in a row or a loose group to build a tall, slim green screen exactly on the sightline that needs interrupting, then layer shrubs and groundcover in front so the whole thing reads as a garden rather than a defensive hedge. Its upright habit means several can go along a narrow side boundary without crowding, and its glossy, larger-leaved foliage brings a lush, almost tropical note that suits a modern Brisbane garden.

Because it stays a sensible size and keeps its roots to itself, it's also one of the well-behaved trees we recommend near structures in our guide to the best plants for Brisbane gardens, and a natural companion to the modest feature trees in small trees for Brisbane gardens. Where a spreading shade tree would threaten the paving, a water gum gives you canopy and privacy without the argument.

Where we write about water gum

Common questions

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