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Electronic Flora of South Australia species Fact Sheet

Family: Myrtaceae
Eucalyptus leucoxylon

Citation: F. Muell., J. Trans. Vict. Inst. 1:33 (1855).

Synonymy: E. leucoxylon F. Muell. var. rugulosa F. Muell. ex Miq., Nederl. Kruidk. Arch. 4:127 (1856); E. leucoxylon F. Muell. var. erythrosterna F. Muell. ex Miq., Nederl. Kruidk. Arch. 4:127 (1856); E. leucoxylon F. Muell. var. angulata Benth., Fl. Aust. 3:210 (1867); E. leucoxylon F. Muell. subsp. megalocarpa Boland, Aust. For. Res. 9:68 (1979); E. leucoxylon F. Muell. var. pruinosa F. Muell. ex Miq., Nederl. Kruidk. Arch. 4:127 (1856); E. leucoxylon F. Muell. subsp. pruinosa (F. Muell. ex Miq.)Boland, Aust. t:br. Res. 9:68 (1979); E. leucoxylon F. Muell. var. pauperita J.E. Brown, Forest Fl. S. Aust. pt 2 (1883); E. leucoxylon F. Muell. var. rostellata F. Muell. ex Miq., Nederl. Kruidk. Arch. 4:127 (1856); E. leucoxylon F. Muell. subsp. petiolaris Boland, Aust. For. Res. 9:70 (1979); E. leucoxylon F. Muell. var. macrocarpa J.E. Brown, Forest Fl. S. Aust. pt 2 (1883), nom. illegit.

Common name: South Australian blue gum, yellow (or blue) gum, white ironbark.

Description:
Single- or less often multi-stemmed trees to 30 m high; bark smooth, streaked grey, slate and light-yellow or off-white, .shedding in strips; rough bark sometimes persisting towards the base; cotyledons shallowly notched or reniform; .juvenile leaves opposite to alternate, sessile or petiolate, elliptic to ovate or orbicular-cordate; adult leaves alternate, on petioles 8-25 mm long, narrow- to broad-lanceolate, glossy, mid- to dark- or olive-green, 7-25 x 1-3.5 cm.

Flowers in umbels of 3 in the axils of the leaves; buds on pedicels 2-15 mm long, ellipsoid, smooth or few-ridged, 7-20 x 5-10 mm; operculum conical or rostrate, more or less as long as the obconical or hemispherical hypanthium; flowers white or cream to yellow or red; stamens all of the same length, many sterile; fertile anthers cuneate-truncate, opening in terminal slits.

Fruits broadly cylindrical or subglobular to pear-shaped or campanulate, thick-walled, with descending or deeply seated flat disk, 9-22 x 7-18 mm; valves deeply to shallowly enclosed; seeds mostly black, irregular in shape, reticulate, not winged.

Distribution:    Vic.

Conservation status: native

Flowering time: May — Nov.


SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: Boland (1979) Aust. For. Res. 9:65-72 recognised 4 subspecies, but there appear, however, to be too many intermediates to warrant their recognition. The following key and distribution are taken from Boland (1979) for those wishing to use his subspecies.

Key to Infraspecific taxa:
1. Juvenile leaves sessile or connate
 
2. Juvenile leaves green; fruit globular-truncate
 
3. Fruit less than 25 mm long
subsp. leucoxylon FR, NL, SL, MU, KI, SE. (Fig. 474B.)
3. Fruit over 25 mm long
subsp. megalocarpa KI, SE. (Fig. 474C.)
2. Juvenile leaves usually glaucous, fruit hemispherical
subsp. pruinosa FR, NL, MU, SE. (Fig. 474E.)
1. Juvenile leaves petiolate
subsp. petiolaris EP. (Fig. 474D.)

Author: Not yet available


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