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Eucalyptus acies Brooker, Nuytsia 1: 245 (1972).
T: Woolbernup Hill, W.A., 4 Aug. 1970, M.I.H.Brooker 2725;
holo: PERTH; iso: CANB, GAUBA, K, MEL, NSW, PERTH.
Mallee to 3 m tall, or shrub. Forming a lignotuber.
Bark smooth, mottled shades of pale grey, pink-grey and brown-grey.
Branchlets conspicuously quadrangular and yellow; lacking
oil glands in the pith.
Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm):
stems squared in cross-section; juvenile leaves sessile to shortly
petiolate, opposite, elliptical to broadly lanceolate, 7-12 cm long,
3-5 cm wide, thick, green.
Adult leaves thick, coarse, opposite to sub-opposite, petioles
1.3-3.3 cm long; blade
lanceolate, 8-13.5 cm long, 2-4 cm wide, base tapering to petiole,
margin entire, apex pointed, concolorous, dull bluish green at first
but maturing glossy, green, side-veins greater
than 45° to midrib, reticulation
moderate to dense, intramarginal vein remote from margin, oil glands
irregular, island or obscure.
Inflorescences axillary unbranched, peduncles flattened, widest
apically, down-curved, 1.5-3.2 cm long; buds 7, pedicellate, clavate
or obovoid to globular, the hypanthium with ca 10-12 shallow longitudinal
ribs, scar absent, the single operculum shallowly conical to rounded
and umbonate, stamens mostly inflexed, a few irregulary disposed,
anthers oblong to reniform, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal
slits that are not confluent apically, style long and straight, stigma
tapered, locules 3, the placentae each with 2 vertical rows of ovules;
flowers cream or pale yellow.
Fruit pedicellate, rigidly down-turned, campanulate to cupular,
1.3-1.5 cm wide, ribbed especially in upper third, disc level or slightly
raised-convex, valves 3, near rim level.
Seed black, 2-5 mm long, truncate-pyramidal to obliquely elongated
or almost cuboid, dorsal surface often lacunose but otherwise smooth,
ventrally ridged, hilum terminal.
Cultivated seedling (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons reniform,
large; seedlings very branched; stems rounded in cross-section; leaves
sessile, opposite and amplexicaul for at least 14 nodes, oblong-elliptic,
3.5-8 cm long, 2.5-5 cm wide, dull, green, apex rounded and apiculate.
NOTES
Eucalyptus acies (Latin acies, a sharp edge, referring
to the strongly angled branchlets).
A straggly shrub or low mallee endemic to Western Australia, found
in Fitzgerald National Park and westwards towards Albany, occurring
usually on hills, e.g. Thumb Peak, Middle Mount Barren, Woolbernup,
Mount Manypeaks, but also on high dunes at Cheyne Beach and South
Sister Nature Reserve.
Eucalyptus acies belongs in Eucalyptus subgenus Eucalyptus,
where it is the only species in series Proximae, characterized
by smooth bark, very angular branchlets with opposite to subopposite
petiolate leaves, buds pendulous in clusters of 7, enclosed by conspicuous
bracts when young, buds with a single operculum (hence no operculum
scar), stamens ± inflexed in bud, anthers that dehisce by completely
separate slits, ovules arranged in 2 rows on the placenta, flat-topped
fruit, seeds cuboid-pyramidal and seedlings with sessile stem-clasping
leaves for many nodes.
It is easily recognised by the low habit, broad thick sub-opposite
leaves, angular branchlets and rigidly down-curved inflorescences.
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