''Corymbia abbreviata'', also known as scraggy bloodwood, is a species of straggly tree that is native to

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

and the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

. It has rough bark, a

crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, parti ...

of stiff leaves arranged in opposite pairs, flower buds usually in crowded groups on the ends of branchlets and urn-shaped fruit.

Description

''Corymbia abbreviata'' is a straggly tree or shrub 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 respons ...

. It has tessellated, flaky, grey-brown over red-brown bark. The branchlets are silvery to green, smooth, glabrous and lack oil glands in the pith. 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

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

, stem-clasping, heart-shaped leaves, long, wide and arranged in opposite pairs. The crown has adult leaves that are similar to the juvenile leaves, heart-shaped to broadly lance-shaped, long, wide with the base stem-clasping or lobed. The flower buds are mostly arranged on the ends of branchlets on a branched peduncle long, each branch usually with seven buds, the buds sessile or 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 ...

up to long. Mature buds are oval to pear-shaped, long and wide with a rounded operculum. Flowering occurs between July and January and the flowers are creamy white. The fruit is a smooth, woody, urn-shaped capsule long and wide with a conspicuous neck and the valves enclosed.

Taxonomy and naming

Scraggy bloodwood was first formally described in 1934 by

William Blakely William Faris Blakely (November 1875 – 1 September 1941) was an Australian botanist and collector. From 1913 to 1940 he worked in the National Herbarium of New South Wales, working with Joseph Maiden on ''Eucalyptus''. Maiden named a red gum ...

and Maxwell Jacobs and given the name ''Eucalyptus abbreviata'', in Blakely's book ''A Key to the Eucalypts''. In 1995, Ken Hill and

Lawrie Johnson Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson (26 June 1925 – 1 August 1997) known as Lawrie Johnson, was an Australian taxonomic botanist. He worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, for the whole of his professional career, as a botanist (1948–1 ...

changed the name to ''Corymbia abbreviata''. 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 ...

(''abbreviata'') is 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 ''abbreviatus'' meaning "shortened" referring to the flower heads.

Distribution and habitat

''Corymbia abbreviata'' has a scattered distribution extending from

Wyndham Wyndham may refer to: *Wyndham (name), a surname and given name Places Australia *City of Wyndham, an LGA (local government area) in Victoria * Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley, a LGA in Western Australia * Wyndham Important Bird Area, Western Aust ...

and Karunji in the

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...

region of Western Australia and east as far as Dorisvale and Willeroo in the Northern Territory. The distribution of ''C. abbreviata'' coincides with '' C. ferruginea''. It grows in skeletal soils, on stony slopes, ridges and outcrops of sandstone, granite or

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock that was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tecton ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15395597 abbreviata Myrtales of Australia Flora of Western Australia Flora of the Northern Territory Plants described in 1934

Description

Taxonomy and naming

Distribution and habitat

See also

References