Eucalyptus radiata is a medium to tall tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

 to 30 m high (rarely 50m) with persistent bark

Bark

Bark is the outermost layers of stems and roots of woody plants. Plants with bark include trees, woody vines and shrubs. Bark refers to all the tissues outside of the vascular cambium and is a nontechnical term. It overlays the wood and consists of the inner bark and the outer bark. The inner...

 on the trunk

Trunk (botany)

In botany, trunk refers to the main wooden axis of a tree that supports the branches and is supported by and directly attached to the roots. The trunk is covered by the bark, which is an important diagnostic feature in tree identification, and which often differs markedly from the bottom of the...

 and larger branches or persistent to smaller branches. The bark shortly fibrous ("peppermint"), grey to grey-brown, shedding in long ribbons. The branchlets are green.
Adult leaves are narrow lanceolate or lanceolate, falcate, acute, basally tapered, glossy or semi-glossy, green, thin, concolorous, 7–15 cm long, 0.7–1.5 mm wide.

Summer flowers are cream yellow.

Uses

E.radiata has six known chemotype

Chemotype

Introduced by Pierre Franchomme in 1975 and formalized in the European Union in 2006 with the adoption of the regulation REACH, a chemotype is a chemically distinct entity in a plant or microorganism, with differences in the composition of the secondary metabolites...

s of essential oil

Essential oil

An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile aroma compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils or aetherolea, or simply as the "oil of" the plant from which they were extracted, such as oil of clove...

. The leaves are distilled for cineole and phellandrene

Phellandrene

Phellandrene is the name for a pair of organic compounds that have a similar molecular structure and similar chemical properties. α-Phellandrene and β-phellandrene are cyclic monoterpenes and are double-bond isomers. In α-phellandrene, both double bonds are endocyclic and in β-phellandrene, one...

 based eucalyptus oil

Eucalyptus oil

Eucalyptus oil is the generic name for distilled oil from the leaf of Eucalyptus, a genus of the plant family Myrtaceae native to Australia and cultivated worldwide. Eucalyptus oil has a history of wide application, as a pharmaceutical, antiseptic, repellent, flavouring, fragrance and industrial uses...

s. E.radiata was the first eucalyptus species to be commercially utilized for oil by Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

 pharmacist

Pharmacist

Pharmacists are allied health professionals who practice in pharmacy, the field of health sciences focusing on safe and effective medication use...

, Joseph Bosisto, in 1854 as "Eucalyptus amygdalina

Eucalyptus amygdalina

Eucalyptus amygdalina, or black peppermint, is a species of Eucalyptus which is endemic to Australia. It was first described by Labillardiere in 1806....

".

The piperitone

Piperitone

Piperitone is a natural monoterpene ketone which is a component of some essential oils. Both stereoisomers, the D-form and the L-form, are known. The D-form has a peppermint-like aroma and has been isolated from the oils of plants from the genera Cymbopogon, Andropogon, and Mentha...

 chemotype is used in flavouring blends of black tea, Camelia sinensis.