Family: Myrtaceae
Eucalyptus calycogona
Citation:
Turcz., Bull. Phys. Math. Acad. Petersb. 10:338 (1852).
Synonymy: E. calycogona Turcz. var. spaffordii (incorrectly spelt " staffordi"') Blakely, Key Eucalypts 265 (1934).
Common name: Square-fruited mallee, gooseberry (or red) mallee.
Description:
Multi- or single-stemmed trees to c. 10 m high; bark smooth, dark-grey, shedding in strips to expose a pale-grey layer, usually with rough bark at the base; cotyledons deeply 2-fid; juvenile leaves petiolate, opposite at first, oblong to ovate; adult leaves alternate, on petioles 8-15 mm long, narrow-lanceolate to lanceolate, glossy, pale-green, 5-10 x 0.7-2 cm; veins inconspicuous.
Flowers in umbels of up to 7 in the axils of the leaves; buds subsessile or on pedicels to 5 mm long, oblong or narrowly obconical, 8-14 x 3-5 mm; operculum obtuse or pointed, shorter than the 4-ridged hypanthium; an outer circumscissile operculum is usually lost early in bud growth; flowers pale-pink; outer stamens sterile, longer than the inner ones; anthers broadly reniform.
Fruits oblong-ellipsoid or oblong-urceolate, strongly 4-ridged, narrow-rimmed, 8-12 x 5-7 mm; disk descending; valves very small, deeply enclosed; seeds red-brown, ellipsoid, faintly reticulate.
Published illustration:
Chippendale (1973) Eucalypts of Western Australian goldfields, pp. 134, 135.
Distribution:
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W.Aust.; N.S.W.; Vic.
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Conservation status:
native
Flowering time: July — Dec.
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SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
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Biology:
This species and E. gracilis are the only ones in S.Aust. with many sterile outer stamens twice as long as the fertile ones.
Author:
Not yet available
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