Eucalyptus prava

Orange gum

Eucalyptus | Symphyomyrtus | Liberivalvae

Eucalyptus prava L.A.S.Johnson & K.D.Hill, Telopea 4: 48 (1990).

T: New South Wales: Northern Tablelands: 2.3 km N of Torrington on Silent Grove road, 7 Sep. 1973, R.G.Coveney 5190: holo: NSW.

Eucalyptus tereticornis var. brevifolia Benth., Fl. Austral. 3: 242 (1867). T: New England, NSW, C. Stuart s.n.; holo: K.

Tree to 15 m tall. Forming a lignotuber.
Bark smooth, becoming granular with age, mottled grey, orange, brown and pink; branchlets glaucous or non-glaucous.
Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stem usually square in cross-section; juvenile leaves always petiolate, opposite for 5–7 pairs then alternate, ovate, 4.5–10.5 cm long, 3–7 cm wide, base rounded or tapering to petiole, dull, blue-green.
Adult leaves alternate, petiole 1.5–2.6 cm long, blade lanceolate to falcate, 5.5–16 cm long, 1.5–3.7 cm wide, base tapering to petiole, concolorous, dull, grey-green to bluish green or slightly glaucous, side-veins greater than 45° to midrib, moderately reticulate, intramarginal vein parallel to and remote from margin, oil glands mostly island.
Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles 0.8–2 cm long, 7-flowered, buds pedicellate (pedicels 0.2–0.5 cm long). Mature buds ovoid, rarely cylindrical (1–1.5 cm long, 0.4–0.6 cm wide), green, creamy or glaucous, scar present, operculum horn-shaped to bluntly conical (0.7–1.1 cm long), stamens erect, anthers cuboid to oblong, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits (non-confluent), style long, stigma blunt, locules 3 or 4, the placentae each with 6 vertical ovule rows. Flowers white.
Fruit pedicellate (pedicels 0.2–0.5 cm long), cup-shaped or hemispherical, 0.3–0.8 cm long, 0.5–1 cm wide, glaucous or non-glaucous, disc variable, raised-vertical to annular or descending, valves 3 or 4, strongly exserted.
Seeds brown, 1–1.3 mm long, pyramidal or cuboid, dorsal surface usually shallowly pitted, hilum terminal.

Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons oblong; stems rounded to square in cross-section; leaves always petiolate, opposite for 5–7 nodes, then alternate, broadly ovate, 3.7–10.5 cm long, 3–7 cm wide, base truncate to tapering, margin entire, apex rounded, dull, green to grey-green.

Flowering has been recorded in January.

A small to medium-sized woodland tree usually of rocky hills, from the Darling Downs in south-eastern Queensland south to the western part of the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales, also the Nandewar and Liverpool Ranges. E. prava is characterised by its small stature, grey to bright pink smooth bark, broad ovate juveniles, glaucous buds and fruit and dull grey-green to blue-grey to glaucous adult leaves.

Eucalyptus prava belongs to the group of red gums which are distinguished by having fruit with an annular disc, free from the remains of the ovary roof and by brown (not black) toothed, single-coated, pyramidal seeds. There are four other species in this group—E. bancroftii, E. parramattensis, E. seeana and E. interstans. E. bancroftii is the closely related coastal form of E. prava and differs by having non-glaucous buds and fruits (the buds and fruit of E. prava normally glaucous). E. parramattensis differs in having smaller non-glaucous buds with a shorter conical to rounded operculum. E. interstans and E. seeana also have non-glaucous buds and differ further by their narrower green adult leaves. (E. seeana and E. interstans differ from each other by the juvenile leaves which are narrowly lanceolate in E. seeana and ovate to broadly lanceolate in E. interstans.)

Within its area of occurrence, E. prava may be confused with other closely related, smooth barked red gums, i.e. E. blakelyi, E. dealbata and E. tereticornis. These three species can be distinguished by having fruit with a steeply ascending disc that is fused to the remains of the ovary roof. E. tereticornis is further separated by having adult leaves and buds that are never glaucous. 

MORE ABOUT RED GUMS AND OTHER ASSOCIATED GROUPS

Eucalyptus prava: Latin pravus, crooked, referring to the habit.