''Corymbia terminalis'', also known as tjuta, joolta, bloodwood, desert bloodwood, plains bloodwood, northern bloodwood, western bloodwood or inland bloodwood, is a species of small to medium-sized tree, rarely a mallee that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

to Australia. It has rough, tessellated bark on some or all of the trunk, sometimes also on the larger branches, smooth white to cream-coloured bark above, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, white flowers and urn-shaped fruit.

Description

''Corymbia terminalis'' is a tree that typically grows to a height of , rarely a mallee, 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 respons ...

. It has rough, tessellated light brown to light grey bark on part or all of the trunk, sometimes extending to the larger branches. Young plants and

coppice Coppicing is the traditional method in woodland management of cutting down a tree to a tree stump, stump, which in many species encourages new Shoot (botany), shoots to grow from the stump or roots, thus ultimately regrowing the tree. A forest ...

regrowth have egg-shaped to elliptical or lance-shaped leaves that are long, wide, tapering to a

petiole Petiole may refer to: *Petiole (botany), the stalk of a leaf, attaching the blade to the stem *Petiole (insect anatomy) In entomology, petiole is the technical term for the narrow waist of some hymenopteran insects, especially ants, bees, and ...

and arranged in opposite pairs. Adult leaves are arranged alternately, the same shade of grey-green on both sides, lance-shaped, long and wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged on the ends of branchlets on a branched peduncle long, each branch of the peduncle with seven buds on

pedicels In botany, a pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branch ...

long. Mature buds are scurfy, oval to pear-shaped, greenish to brown or cream-coloured, long, wide with a conical, rounded or flattened operculum. Flowering occurs between March and October and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody urn-shaped capsule long and wide on a pedicel long and with the valves enclosed in the fruit. The seeds are light brown or reddish brown, long with a wing on the end.

Taxonomy and naming

Tjuta was first formally described in 1859 by

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (; 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 Victoria, Australia ...

and given the name ''Eucalyptus terminalis''. The description was published in the '' Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Botany'' from samples collected from

Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territorial capital, Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compa ...

in the Northern Territory in 1856. In 1995, Ken Hill and Lawrie Johnson changed the name to ''Corymbia terminalis'', publishing the change in the journal '' Telopea''. In the same paper, Hill and John described ''C. terminalis'', '' C. opaca'' and ''C. tumescens'' as distinct species with intergrades between them. 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 Sys ...

regards ''C. tumescens'' as a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely 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 a ...

but it is considered by the

National Herbarium of New South Wales The National Herbarium of New South Wales was established in 1853. The Herbarium has a collection of more than 1.4 million plant specimens, making it the second largest collection of pressed, dried plant specimens in Australia,Thiers, B. ...

to be distinct.Philip Moore 2005 “A Guide to Plants of Inland Australia” Reed New Holland The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

is derived from the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

word ''terminalis'' meaning ''terminal'' in reference to the placement of the inflorescences on the branchlets outside the crown.

Distribution and habitat

This eucalypt occurs in arid and seasonally dry areas of the Northern Territory, Queensland, the north-west of New South Wales and the extreme north of South Australia. ''Corymbia opaca'', sometimes included in ''C. terminalis'', is found in the northern half of Western Australia.Boland, D.J., Brooker, M.I.H., Chippendale, G.M., Hall, N., Hyland, B.P.M., Johnston, R.D., Kleinig, D.A., McDonald, M.W. & Turner J.D. 1999 "Forest Trees of Australia" CSIRO Publishing The tree typically grows on river flats, scree slopes and dune swales. It prefers well drained soils and is both

drought A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...

and frost tolerant.

Ecology

The flowers of ''Corymbia terminalis'' produce drops of nectar which provide a high energy food source for many desert animals including honeyeaters, insects and possums. It is also host to an unusual female insect called a

coccid Scale insects are small insects of the Order (biology), order Hemiptera, suborder Sternorrhyncha. Of dramatically variable appearance and extreme sexual dimorphism, they comprise the infraorder Coccomorpha which is considered a more convenient g ...

. Once the coccid burrows into the bark it forms a

gall Galls (from the Latin , 'oak-apple') or ''cecidia'' (from the Greek , anything gushing out) are a kind of swelling growth on the external tissues of plants. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues, similar to benign tumors or war ...

which it never leaves. Hidden away it sucks sap from the trees veins. The gall that grows on the tree is called the coconut. It must be broken open; the insect on the inside can be eaten, and contains a lot of moisture and a disinfectant.

Indigenous uses

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

s used the tree for traditional medicine. The

exudate An exudate is a fluid released by an organism through pores or a wound, a process known as exuding or exudation. ''Exudate'' is derived from ''exude'' 'to ooze' from Latin language, Latin 'to (ooze out) sweat' (' 'out' and ' 'to sweat'). Medi ...

from the trunk or branches was diluted and used as an antiseptic treatment of facial cuts and sores. Larger leaves were useful for staunching wounds. The red bark kino can be stripped from the tree and mixed in water, then consumed for

diarrhoea Diarrhea (American English), also spelled diarrhoea or diarrhœa (British English), is the condition of having at least three loose, liquid, or watery bowel movements in a day. It often lasts for a few days and can result in dehydration d ...

as well as for indigestion and chest pain. The wood from the tree was used by indigenous peoples to make spear-throwers, digging bowls and carrying vessels. Europeans used the wood to make fence-posts, joists slabs and buildings as well as using it for firewood.

References