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Eucalyptus amplifolia subsp. sessiliflora (Blakely)
L.A.S.Johnson & K.D.Hill, Telopea 4: 52 (1990).
E. amplifolia var. sessiliflora Blakely, Key Eucalypts:
131 (1934). T: Acacia Creek, Macpherson Range, Dec. 1904, W. Dunn
47; holo: NSW.
Tree to 30 m tall. Forming a lignotuber.
Bark smooth throughout or with loose, greyish slabs persistent
at base of trunk, smooth bark often becoming granular with age, white,
grey, cream, brown or orange.
Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm):
stem square in cross section, winged when young; juvenile leaves held
conspicuously horizontal, soon alternate, petiolate, orbicular, ovate
or deltoid, 4.5-16 cm long, 3.5-11 cm wide, margin entire, green and
glossy.
Adult leaves alternate, petiole 1.5-3 cm long;
blade lanceolate to falcate, 7.5-22
cm long, 1.3-3.5 cm wide, base tapering evenly to petiole, margin
entire, concolorous, glossy or dull, green, side-veins
greater than 45° to midrib,
moderately to densely reticulate, intramarginal vein parallel to and
just within margin or well removed from it, oil glands mostly island.
Inflorescences axillary unbranched, peduncles 0.5-1.5 cm long;
buds 9 to ?15, sessile, fusiform, ovoid, yellow or creamy, scar present,
operculum conical to horn-shaped much longer than hypanthium, stamens
erect, anthers cuboid to oblong, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing
by longitudinal slits (non-confluent), style long, locules 3 or 4,
the placentae each with 6 vertical ovule rows; flowers white.
Fruit sessile, hemispherical, 0.5-0.6 cm wide, disc raised,
valves 3 or 4, strongly exserted.
Seed brown or blackish, 0.7-1 mm long, pyramidal or cuboid,
dorsal surface pitted, hilum terminal.
Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons reniform
to oblong; stems squared in cross-section and winged; leaves sessile
at lowest nodes but soon petiolate, opposite until nodes 4 to 6 then
alternate, orbicular to deltoid, 7-10 cm long, 4-7 cm wide, base truncate
to tapering, apex rounded or pointed, green, held horizontal.
NOTES
Eucalyptus amplifolia (Latin amplus, large, of the leaves).
A small to medium-sized red gum tree of subcoastal and tableland areas
of New South Wales extending into Queensland. E. amplifolia
belongs to the black, toothed, single-coated seed group. It is notable
in the group for having large orbicular to deltoid, very glossy green
juvenile leaves which are held, in the seedling, horizontally for
more nodes than in the other red gums. It has buds with an elogated
operculum but, unlike E. tereticornis , not dilated at the
base.
There are two subspecies:
subsp. amplifolia
Occurs from the Nowra district north to the northern tablelands of
New South Wales. It has pedicellate buds and fruit.
subsp. sessiliflora (Latin sessiliflora, flowers without
stalks).
Has smaller buds and fruits than subsp. amplifolia, and they
are usually more tightly clustered because the pedicel is very short
or absent. It occurs from east of Armidale to east of Tenterfield
in New South Wales and adjacent areas of far south-eastern Queensland.
Eucalyptus amplifolia belongs to Eucalyptus subgenus
Symphyomyrtus section Exsertaria (red gums) series Erythroxylon
because the bark is smooth, buds have two opercula, ovules are in
6 rows, seeds are pyramidal to cuboid and blackish, cotyledons are
reniform to oblong, adult leaves are concolorous and the fruit have
exserted valves. Series Erythroxylon has about 15 species occurring
throughout eastern and central Australia.
USES
Honey.
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