''Eucalyptus crebra'', commonly known as the narrow-leaved ironbark, narrow-leaved red ironbark or simply ironbark, and as muggago in the indigenous

Dharawal The Dharawal people, also spelt Tharawal and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people, identified by the Dharawal language. Traditionally, they lived as hunter–fisher–gatherers in family groups or clans with ties of kinship, ...

language, is a species of small to medium-sized tree

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to eastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. It has hard, rough "

ironbark Ironbark is a common name of a number of species in three taxonomic groups within the genus ''Eucalyptus'' that have dark, deeply furrowed bark. Instead of being shed annually as in many of the other species of ''Eucalyptus'', the dead bark accum ...

" from its trunk to small branches, linear to lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, nine or eleven, white flowers and cup-shaped, barrel-shaped or hemispherical fruit. A variable species, it grows in woodland and forest from the

Cape York Peninsula Cape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest unspoiled wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth’s last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupación ...

to near

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

. It is an important source of nectar in the honey industry and its hard, strong timber is used in construction. Eucalyptus crebra buds

Description

''Eucalyptus crebra'' is a tree that typically grows to a height of and forms a

lignotuber A lignotuber is a woody swelling of the root crown possessed by some plants as a protection against destruction of the plant stem, such as by fire. Other woody plants may develop basal burls as a similar survival strategy, often as a response t ...

. It has persistent thick, rough, deeply furrowed, greyish black "ironbark" from the base of its trunk to the small branches. Young plants and

coppice Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which exploits the capacity of many species of trees to put out new shoots from their stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, which is called a copse, young tree stems are repeate ...

regrowth have linear to lance-shaped or curved leaves long and wide. Adult leaves are linear to lance-shaped, the same dull green to greyish colour on both sides, long and wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in groups of seven, nine or eleven, usually on a branching

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are forme ...

on the ends of branchlets. Each group is carried on a peduncle long, the individual buds on a pedicel long. Mature buds are club-shaped, spindle-shaped, or diamond-shaped to oval, long and wide and green to yellow with a conical to rounded operculum. Flowering has been recorded in most months and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody cup-shaped, barrel-shaped or hemispherical capsule long and wide on a pedicel long.

Taxonomy and naming

''Eucalyptus crebra'' was first formally described in ''Journal and Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Botany'' by Victorian state botanist

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

in 1859. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bo ...

is the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

adjective ''crebra'' meaning "thick", "close" or "numerous", referring to the species' abundance. Narrow-leaved ironbark has included several species, including ''E. drepanophylla'' and ''E. xanthoclada'' but these are regarded as

synonyms A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are ...

by the

Australian Plant Census The Australian Plant Census (APC) provides an online interface to currently accepted, published, scientific names of the vascular flora of Australia, as one of the output interfaces of the national government Integrated Biodiversity Information Syst ...

. ''Eucalyptus repanophylla'' is accepted as a separate species by the Queensland Government. Other similar species include '' E. exilipes'', '' E. granitica'', '' E. staigeriana'', '' E. quadricostata'' and '' E. whitei''.

Distribution and habitat

The narrow-leaved ironbark grows in sandy soils in woodland and forest from Picton, southwest of Sydney, north through New South Wales and Queensland to the vicinity of

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

Uses

The tree has a hard, strong, and dark red timber, which has been used for sleepers and construction. A plank has been recorded as being used for Elizabeth Farm, Australia's oldest surviving European dwelling. It is used as a shade tree or to line roadways, and is also available as a cultivar. It is useful in honey production as the flowers are heavy in nectar and pollen; the resulting honey produced by bees is light-coloured and delicately flavoured.

Gallery

File:Starr 020203-0042 Eucalyptus crebra.jpg, ''E. crebra'' open capsules. File:Starr 020203-0045 Eucalyptus crebra.jpg, ''E. crebra'' open capsules. File:Eucalyptus Crebra bark.jpg, ''E. crebra'' bark

References

External links

''Eucalyptus crebra''

USDA profile
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3059456 crebra Flora of Queensland Flora of New South Wales Drought-tolerant trees Myrtales of Australia Trees of Australia Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller