Ryan, While I also think Eucalyptus globulus still has a place in California, your facts about the Oakland Hills fire are also abit off. The Oakland Hills fire was in October of 1991, and there had been a bad freeze in December 1990, but these trees would have burnt and rapidly spread the fire even if they had not suffered freeze damage and been subjected to several low rainfall years prior. Blue Gum trees are just naturally less resistant to fire due to their oils, and the extreme amount of debris they create, which is also highly flammable. There is simply no debating that a Coast Redwood of the same size is intrinsically less fire spreading under high wind conditions than either Eucalyptus globulus or Pinus radiata. In Santa Ana or Diablo winds conditions, these two trees most definitely did spread the fire, while Sequoia sempervirens and Quercus agrifolia would often get singed, but did not burn completely, nor tend to send flying embers to spread the fires. It is obvious to even the casual observer which species are/were the safer type to have near buildings. As Blue Gum Euc's also naturalize on the steep hillsides, and create immense amounts of continual debris, they are more of a fire hazard because too few homeowners clean up after them, and the ones on public property typically didn't get any cleanup ever. There are certainly other species of Eucalyptus that generate less debris, and don't get so huge, that wouldn't be any more dangerous than other species, but I couldn't include E. globulus in this category. Oakland Hills homes in the fire zone were much more likely to survive if adjacent to Coast Live Oaks and/or Coast Redwoods, as both contain more water even when drought stressed. UC Berkeley is currently doing large scale removals of E. globulus in the Claremont Canyon, to minimize fire hazards, and while controversial, I think they are wise to do so. The bigger issue is that it is inherently dangerous to build flammable houses in heavily wooded hillsides, and during high wind conditions, the resultant fires are unstoppable. If you were to drive through the Oakland Hills fire zone today, almost 16 years later, you would seem the same identical hazardous conditions still exist, if not even more so...

There is a lady called Chantal Troccaz who sells all manner of native seed pods at The Rocks Market which I think is held every Saturday. Her business is called Australian Eycalypts Gifts and her ph no are 93312439 or 0403293601.

I run an online store seeling Australian seed, the ten fCorymbia Ficifolialat ovate khaki seeds about 6mm long would have to be the Corymbia Ficifolia. Euc sideroxylon rosea and Euc leucoxylon petiolaris are quite similar as in being small and red and black although the E. sideroxylon is a little more orange than red. (the black are the seed in both these the red or orange is only chaff) Eucalyptus caesia seed is about 2mm and dark in colour and a little dimpled looking. Thats about all I can tell you from the details you have. Hope it helps a little. All these growing very easy with no pre-treatment. Here is a link that might be useful: Australian Seed and Plant

I propagate hundreds of Eucs from seed every year for taxonomic purposes but always from Southern Australia not from the north. I am not familiar with this particular species but Eucalyptus seeds can easily be separated from the chaff (other stuff which falls out of the ripe and dry fruit). Every time I go to a supermarket I buy a tea strainer. Each brand and type has a slightly different sieve size. I now have a good collection and usually there is one which will particularly suit each species because seed size varies greatly. With subgenus monocalyptus, I don't bother. I germinate the seeds in trays and transplant to empty milk cartons (filled with soil of course) after the third or fouth set of seedling leaves has formed. Of course you can plant the chaff as well but I strain the seed to get a good idea of the viability. Eucs prefer to be planted only a few mm below the surface. The raising mix I use is sand and clay and the only fertiliser is a bit of ash from the fire roughly a tea spoon of ash per kilo of soil. Any other fertiliser at all will usually kill them or prevent germination. When propagating a new species I make one end of the tray slightly acidic (rotting sawdust) and the other end alkaline (lime sand) with a plastic separator. The end of the tray which does best tells me what to use next year. It also tells me the best acidity of the soil to which I will transplant them and the best place to plant them when they are about a year old. Its an easy but very rewarding task. I hope this is of some help.