Eucalyptus dendromorpha

Budawang Ash

Eucalyptus | Eucalyptus | Eucalyptus | Strictae | Irregulares

Eucalyptus dendromorpha (Blakely) L.A.S.Johnson & Blaxell, Contr. New South Wales Natl. Herb. 4: 286 (1972).

Eucalyptus obtusiflora var. dendromorpha Blakely, Austral. Naturalist 10: 258 (1941). T: West Albion Park, near Macquarie Pass, NSW, June 1901, R.H.Cambage s.n.; holo: NSW.

Tree to 30 m tall. Lignotuber absent.
Bark usually rough on lower trunk, rough bark compacted, grey or brown; smooth bark white, cream, pink, green or grey, usually with scribbles, often ribbony. Young reproductively mature trees may lack any rough bark.
Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stems round in cross-section, densely warty; juvenile leaves opposite for 4 to 7 nodes, sessile, discolorous, elliptical, soon becoming alternate, petiolate, broadly lanceolate to falcate, 7.5–14 cm long, 2–5 cm wide, base becoming oblique, slightly discolorous, glossy, green.
Adult leaves alternate, petiole 0.6–1.5 cm long; blade lanceolate to falcate, 7–12 cm long, 1–2.5 cm wide, base usually oblique, concolorous, glossy, green, side-veins acute, sparsely reticulate, intramarginal vein parallel to and just within margin, oil glands mostly island.
Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles 0.6–1.5 cm long, buds 7, 9 or ?11 per umbel, pedicels 0.2–0.6 cm long. Mature buds obovoid to clavate, 0.5–0.6 cm long, 0.2–0.3 cm wide, smooth or sometimes warty, scar absent, operculum conical to rounded-apiculate, stamens irregularly flexed, anthers reniform to cordate, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by confluent slits, style long, stigma tapered, locules 3 or 4, the placentae each with 2 vertical ovule rows. Flowers white.
Fruit pedicellate (pedicels 0.1–0.5 cm long), cup-shaped, barrel-shaped, slightly urceolate or truncate-globose, 0.7–1 cm long, 0.7–1.1 cm wide, disc descending, valves 3 or 4, enclosed.
Seeds brown, 1.5–2 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, densely warty (feel scabrid); leaves sessile to shortly petiolate, opposite, elliptical and discolorous for 4 to 7 nodes then alternate with more obvious petioles, lanceolate 5–10 cm long, 1.5–3.5 cm wide, base rounded, oblique or tapering, apex pointed, concolorous, glossy, green.

Flowering has been recorded in January, June and December.

A small to tall tree endemic to New South Wales, of the tablelands and slopes from the Blue Mountains south to Budawang south-east of Braidwood in southern New South Wales. When fully grown it is partly rough-barked, and has glossy green leaves, club-shaped buds and barrel-shaped fruit.

Eucalyptus dendromorpha belongs in Eucalyptus subgenus Eucalyptus section Eucalyptus series Strictae, because of the following combination of characters: small tree habit with some rough bark, alternate, green juvenile leaves, adult leaves held erect and with acute side-veins and little or no visible reticulation, single axillary inflorescences, the buds in clusters of seven, with buds having only one operculum and reniform anthers, ovules in two rows, and ± pyramidal seeds. Within series Strictae, E. dendromorpha is one of six closely related species all with leaf oil glands that are irregular in outline (subseries Irregulares), the others being E. triflora (a mostly smooth-barked tree with oblong sessile buds in threes or sevens and more squat fruit with level to slightly descending disc); E. apiculata, E. stricta and E. burgessiana (all mallees with smooth bark and clavate buds in sevens, rarely elevens); and E. langleyi (also a smooth-barked mallee with angular branchlets, clavate buds in sevens and adult leaves to 5 cm wide).

E. dendromorpha is sometimes confused with E. fraxinoides, but that species has blackish seed, not brown, and juvenile leaves that are predominantly bluish, not green.

Eucalyptus dendromorpha: Greek dendros, tree and morphos, form, referring to the habit compared with related mallee species.