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Eucalyptus argutifolia Grayling & Brooker, Nuytsia 8: 215 (1992).
T: Parrot Ridge, N of Yanchep, Western Australia, 31°29'S,
115°44'E,
9 Apr. 1987, M.I.H.Brooker 9581 & S.D.Hopper; holo: PERTH;
iso: AD, CANB, MEL, MEL, NSW.
Mallee to 4 m tall. Forming a lignotuber.
Bark smooth throughout, grey to pale coppery.
Branchlets with pith glands restricted to nodes.
Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm):
stems rounded to squared in cross-section, smooth; juvenile leaves
always petiolate, opposite for very few nodes then alternate, orbicular
to ovate or deltoid, 4-7 cm long, 3-5.5 cm wide, base rounded to tapering,
apex rounded to broadly pointed, green, glossy.
Adult leaves alternate, petioles 1.8-2.5 cm long;
blade broadly lanceolate to lanceolate,
7.3-12 cm long, 1.2-3 cm wide, (most herbarium specimens, and therefore
plants, appear to have intermediate leaves with fully adult leaves
being to 12 cm long and < 2cm wide), base tapering to petiole,
margin entire, apex pointed, concolorous, glossy, green, side-veins
at an acute or wider angle to midrib, reticulation very dense, intramarginal
vein present, oil glands mostly intersectional.
Inflorescences axillary unbranched, peduncles stout, 0.5-1.5
cm long; buds 7 or 9 (rarely 11), almost sessile or pedicellate, ovoid
to obovoid, scar present, operculum rounded and as wide as hypanthium,
stamens inflexed, anthers cuboid to wedge-shaped, versatile, dorsifixed,
dehiscing by longitudinal slits, style long and straight, stigma more
or less rounded, locules 4 or 5, the placentae each with 4 vertical
rows of ovules; flowers white.
Fruit sessile or pedicellate, cylindrical to cupular-obconical,
0.7-0.8 cm wide, slightly ribbed or not, disc descending, valves 4
or 5, to rim level.
Seed red and glossy, 1.5-3.2 mm long, flattened-ovoid and somewhat
angular in outline, dorsal surface often lacunose, shallowly reticulate,
hilum ventral.
Cultivated seedling (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons reniform;
stems squared in cross-section; leaves always petiolate, opposite
for 4 to 7 nodes then alternate, ovate, 3.5-8 cm long, 3-4.5 cm wide,
dull, green.
NOTES
Eucalyptus argutifolia (Latin, argutifolius, bright-leaved,
referring to the shiny adult leaves).
A mallee endemic to Western Australia and known from north of Yanchep,
a northern suburb of Perth, on Wabling Hill, Parrot Ridge and also
south of the coastal town of Seabird; of near-coastal distribution
on limestone. The bark is smooth and the adult leaves are glossy green.
Eucalyptus argutifolia belongs in Eucalyptus sub-genus
Symphyomyrtus section Dumaria because the buds have
two opercula, stamens are strongly inflexed, ovules are in 4 rows
on the placentae and cotyledons are reniform. Within section Dumaria,
E. argutifolia belongs to a large sub-group of closely related
species (series Rufispermae) diagnosed by glandular pith in
the branchlets, cuboid-wedge shaped anthers and by the lustrous, ruby-red
flattish seeds.
Eucalyptus argutifolia is probably most closely related to
E. phenax from which it differs by the broader juvenile leaves,
broader glossier adult leaves and buds with blunter opercula. No other
closely related species (i.e. in series Rufispermae) occurs
in this coastal area, however the glaucous E. sheathiana
occurs to the east near Wongan Hills and the coarser and often
glaucous E. obtusiflora occurs in
coastal and sub-coastal areas to the north.
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