Gum tree (Eucalyptus) mount for phals?

[Miri the Wildmage]

I have a large Eucalyptus gum tree in my back garden and it has beautiful, thick, long lasting, craggy bark which looks just right for mounting. I guess I would have to spray it with insecticide first anyway, but what I want to know is - is it poisonous to orchids? I want to mount a phal on it but I need to know. Also, there is currently no moss growing anywhere on the tree, which worries me. Everything else is COVERED in moss after this prime example of the Great British summer, and I'm wondering if this could be a sign that the wood is poisonous to epiphytes.

The mount would be inside, not on the tree itself. You just can't grow tropicals in the UK.

[WhiteRabbit]

Might not be poisonous, but tannins in the wood may be inhospitable. I don't know tho. Hopefully others can answer definitively.

[Baz in Oz]

Miri, I don't know which species of Eucalypt (we don't refer to them as Eucalyptus here) you have but a lot of varieties shed their bark annually which means they shed whatever you have growing on them along with the bark.

I have never heard of anyone having 'toxic' problems with the non-shedding varieties and I grow Dendrobiums on them OK.

Baz

[Miri the Wildmage]

I have one of the shedding varieties but the bark would be separate from the tree anyway because I would use a fallen bit of bark to take inside

[flexdc]

Here in Southern California, there are plenty of transplanted gum trees from Australia, and a lot of people use them to mount orchids. I have a no id mounted on a piece of gum wood. Yes the bark shed but the orchid is so intrenched that the shedding does not affect it at all. But this is an established plant.
Andrew

[harleymc]

I've found that Euc bark will peel off cut branches after drying out. That being said I have a lot of orchids mounted on euc wood, it lasts forever except for boring insects.