But no one knows what was going through his mind when his car unaccountably left the road and crashed into a eucalyptus tree.

ECONOMIST: Joseph Wolfson

He loses a big, old eucalyptus or pine tree every couple of years, and the library which looks ancient but was built from scratch five years ago has a long crack down the middle of the floor.

WSJ: The Most Important Garden Designer You've Never Heard Of

We hugged three-story-high dirt walls with vines clinging to them, passed dense bamboo forests, fragrant hibiscus bushes and groves of towering rainbow eucalyptus, a rare tree with multicolored bark.

WSJ: Driving the Hana Highway in Maui, Hawaii

So far, its scientists have identified 600 genetic markers in ten species of eucalyptus, acacia and melaleuca, a temperate tree prized for its oils.

ECONOMIST: Trees are the next target of genetic engineers