 |
Eucalyptus apothalassica L.A.S.Johnson & K.D.Hill, Telopea
4: 84 (1990).
T: Queensland: on property 5 km south of Kogan on Tara road, 25 Aug.
1984, K.D.Hill 1245 & L.A.S.Johnson; holo: NSW; iso: PERTH,
BRI, CANB.
Tree to 15 m tall. Forming a lignotuber.
Bark rough throughout, grey or grey-brown, fibrous, held in
flattish strips rather than like typical stringybark.
Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm):
stem rounded in cross-section; juvenile leaves opposite and sessile
for at least 10 pairs then becoming alternate, petiolate, ovate to
lanceolate, 6.5-15 cm long, 2-4.5 cm wide, discolorous, slightly glossy,
green or blue-green.
Adult leaves alternate, petiole 0.5-2.2 cm long; blade lanceolate
to falcate, 5-14 cm long, 1.2-2.8 cm wide, base oblique or tapering
evenly to petiole, margin entire, concolorous, dull or glossy, green,
side-veins greater than 45° to midrib,
moderately to densely reticulate, intramarginal vein parallel to and
well removed from margin, oil glands island or obscure.
Inflorescences axillary unbranched, peduncles 0.5-2.3 cm long;
buds 11 to 15, pedicellate, ovoid to fusiform, green to yellow, scar
absent, operculum conical to beaked, stamens irregularly flexed, anthers
reniform to cordate, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by confluent
slits, style long, locules 3 or 4, the placentae each with 2 vertical
ovule rows; flowers white.
Fruit pedicellate, truncate-globose or barrel-shaped, 0.5-0.7
cm wide, disc descending, valves 3 or 4, slightly exserted or near
rim level.
Seed brown, 1-2 mm long, pyramidal or obliquely pyramidal,
dorsal surface smooth, hilum terminal.
Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons reniform;
stems rounded in cross-section; leaves opposite and sessile for ca
9 or 10 nodes, lanceolate, 9-15 cm long, 3-4.5 cm wide, base amplexicaul
to rounded, discolorous, green, becoming slightly glossy.
NOTES
Eucalyptus apothalassica (Greek apo, away from and thalassicos,
the sea, refers to its distribution in relation to its congeners).
A small to medium-sized tree on sandstone-derived soils in the Yetman
area of the North Western Plains of New South Wales extending to the
Carnarvon Range in central Queensland. E. apothalassica is
a white mahogany weakly distinguished from the widespread, but more
coastal E. acmenoides,
only by the concolorous, thicker, less glossy adult leaves and
the lower stature. These two species, plus
the coastal species E. psammitica , E. umbra and E. carnea
, which also have concolorous leaves, form section Amentum.
Eucalyptus apothalassica belongs
in Eucalyptus subgenus Eucalyptus, because the buds
have a single operculum, the anthers are reniform, ovules are in 2
rows and the seeds are ± pyramidal. The five species forming
section Amentum are recognised principally by the extensive
rough bark which is in flattish strips, the clustering of inflorescences
towards the ends of branchlets, the densely reticulate venation of
the adult leaves, and the opposite, sessile juvenile leaves, which
may indicate some affinity with the blackbutts (section Pseudophloius)
and the peppermints (section Aromatica).
|
|
|
