Candlebark

''Eucalyptus rubida'', commonly known as candlebark, ribbon gum or white gum, is a species of small to medium-sized tree that is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It has smooth bark, sometimes with rough bark at the base, lance-shaped or curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of three, white flowers and cup-shaped, hemispherical or bell-shaped fruit.

Description

''Eucalyptus rubida'' is a tree that typically grows to a height of and forms a lignotuber. It has smooth, powdery, greyish or pink bark that is shed in long ribbons but there is sometimes persistent fibrous bark near the base of the trunk. Young plants and coppice regrowth have sessile, glaucous, more or less round leaves wide arranged in opposite pairs. Adult leaves are arranged alternately, lance-shaped to curved, long and wide, tapering to a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils in groups of three on an unbanched peduncle, the individual buds sessile or an pedicels up to long. Mature buds are oval to spindle-shaped, long and wide with a conical to rounded operculum. Flowering mainly occurs from December to April and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody cup-shaped, hemispherical or bell-shaped capsule long and wide with the valves near rim level or protruding slightly.

Taxonomy and naming

''Eucalyptus rubida'' was first formally described in 1899 by Henry Deane and Joseph Maiden in ''Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales''. The specific epithet (''rubida'') is from the Latin word ''rubidus'' meaning "red", referring to the seasonally red bark.

In 1991, Lawrie Johnson and Ken Hill described two subspecies and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census as at December 2019:
* ''Eucalyptus rubida'' subsp. ''barbigerorum'' L.A.S.Johnson & K.D.Hill, commonly known as blackbutt candlebark, has elliptic juvenile leaves and a trunk with thick, rough bark at the base;
* ''Eucalyptus rubida'' H.Deane & Maiden subsp. ''rubida'' has round juvenile leaves and smooth bark to ground level.

Distribution and habitat

Candlebark grows in woodland and forest, usually in shallow soils on tablelands, hills and slopes. Subspecies ''barbigerorum'' occurs on the Northern Tablelands north of Armidale. Subspecies ''rubida'' occurs on the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, mainly on the northern side of the Great Dividing Range in Victoria, between Halls Gap and Delegate, and on the tablelands and mountain slopes of eastern Tasmania.

Conservation status

Subspecies ''barbigerorum'' is classified as "vulnerable" under the Australian Government ''Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999''. The main threats to the subspecies are habitat disturbance caused by agriculture, development and road work and by timber collection.

See also

* List of ''Eucalyptus'' species

image:Juvenile Candlebark leaves.jpg, leaves of the immature tree
image:Juvenile Candlebark leaves and stem.jpg, leaves of the immature tree
File:Candlebark adult leaf.jpg, adult leaf

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2070107

rubida
Myrtales of Australia
Flora of the Australian Capital Territory
Flora of New South Wales
Flora of Victoria (state)
Flora of Tasmania
Trees of Australia
Plants described in 1899