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Eucalyptus albens Benth., Fl. Austral. 3: 219 (1867).
E. hemiphloia var. albens (Benth.) Maiden, Forest
Fl. New South Wales 1: 131 (1904).
T: Macquarie R., N.S.W., Aug. 1817, A.Cunningham 198;
syn: BM, K; New England, N.S.W., C.Stuart s.n.; syn: K, MEL;
between Alfords and the Range, N.S.W., 17 June 1843, L.Leichhardt
s.n.; syn: MEL; between Ten Mile Ck & Broken R., Vic., F.Mueller
s.n. ; syn: K, MEL.
E. albens var. elongata Blakely, Key Eucalypts
237 (1934). T: Mt Topper State Forest, N.S.W., Oct. 1923, L.B.
Peacocke s.n.; holo: NSW.
Tree to 25 m tall. Forming a lignotuber.
Bark rough on most or all of trunk and base of large branches,
rarely extending to branches < 8 cm diam., box type, often becoming
tessellated, pale grey or mottled grey and white patches, smooth
bark of branches predominantly white, sometimes grey, or tinged
orange, pink or salmon.
Branchlets usually glaucous, pith oil glands rarely present.
Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm):
stem rounded or square in cross-section, glaucous or non-glaucous;
juvenile leaves alternate, petiolate, orbicular, deltoid or ovate,
5-10.5 cm long, 5-10 cm wide, margin entire, blue-green, grey-green,
or blue-grey or glaucous.
Adult leaves alternate, petiolate, 1.2-3 cm long; blade lanceolate
to ovate, 7-16.5 cm long, 1.7-4.3 cm wide, base tapering to petiole,
margin entire, concolorous, dull, blue-green, grey-green, blue-grey
to glaucous, side-veins mostly greater
than 45° to midrib, densely
to very densely reticulate, intramarginal vein parallel to and just
within margin or well removed from it, oil glands mostly intersectional
or obscure.
Inflorescences terminal panicles or axillary unbranched,
peduncles 0.8-1.8 cm long; buds 7, pedicellate or sessile, fusiform,
often slightly curved, glaucous or sometimes green, slightly angled,
scar absent, operculum conical, stamens irregularly flexed, anthers
cuboid, adnate to filament, dehiscing by broad lateral pores, style
long, locules 3 or 4(5) each with 4 vertical ovule rows; flowers
white.
Fruit pedicellate or sessile, cylindrical, urceolate or barrel-shaped,
0.5-1 cm wide, often slightly angled longitudinally, glaucous or
non-glaucous, disc descending, valves 3 or 4(5), enclosed.
Seed blackish, brown or grey, 1-2 mm long, irregularly flattened-ovoid,
sometimes pointed at one end, lacunose or not, dorsal surface smooth
or shallowly pitted, hilum ventral.
Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons
reniform to oblong; stems rounded or squared in cross-section, usually
glaucous; leaves always petiolate, opposite for 3 to 5 nodes then
alternate, orbicular to ovate, 5-10.5 cm long, 3-7.5 cm wide, base
rounded or truncate, grey-green to glaucous.
NOTES
Eucalyptus albens (Latin albens, white, of the general
appearance of the tree and the white wax on the flower buds and
fruits).
A small to medium-sized box tree occuring from south-eastern Queensland
throughout the western slopes of New South Wales to eastern Victoria,
with a small population near Melrose in the southern Flinders Range
of South Australia. It has extensive pale to whitish box bark, large
juvenile leaves that are grey to glaucous and pendulous, dull adult
leaves that are greyish to glaucous and elongated usually glaucous
buds. These features distinguish it from other box trees. In addition
it occurs on more elevated, stony sites than does the related box
tree E. microcarpa .
Eucalyptus albens belongs in Eucalyptus subgenus Symphyomyrtus
section Adnataria (the boxes) because the buds have two opercula,
ovules are in four rows, seeds are flattened-ovoid, cotyledons are
reniform, and anthers are rigid on the staminal filaments. Within
section Adnataria, E. albens is part of a subgroup,
series Buxeales subseries Continentes, further distinguished
by having buds that retain the outer operculum until flowering time
when both opercula are shed together. Most species in this group
are from eastern Australia and have all stamens fertile and are
woodland trees of hills and plains, often dominant in the landscape
viz. E. albens, E. moluccana , E. microcarpa and E. pilligaensis
. Others, viz. E. viridis , E. polybractea , E. froggattii
, E. odorata , E. albopurpurea , E. "illucens" and
E. porosa are mallees, some of them also occurring as small
trees occasionally.
USES
Heavy engineering construction, poles, railway sleepers, fencing,
fuel and honey.
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