''Eucalyptus acmenoides'', commonly known as white mahogany or barayly,Les Robinson - Field Guide to the Native Plants of Sydney, page 40 is a species of tree 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 eastern Australia. It is a large tree with grey to reddish brown, stringy bark, lance-shaped leaves, oval to spindle-shaped buds and more or less hemispherical fruits. The two sides of adult leaves are very different shades of green.

Description

''Eucalyptus acmenoides'' is a tree that grows to a height of or more, although only half that height in dry sites. It has thin stringy or fibrous, grey to reddish brown bark. Leaves on young trees are egg-shaped to broadly lance-shaped glossy green, up to long and wide. Adult leaves are lance-shaped, glossy green but much paler on the lower side, long and wide. The flowers are arranged in groups of mostly between seven and eleven on an angular peduncle long, individual flowers on a cylindrical pedicel long. The buds are oval to spindle-shaped, long and wide. The operculum is conical or beak-shaped, about as long and wide as the flower cup. The fruit is a globe-shaped to hemispherical capsule, long and wide.

Taxonomy

''Eucalyptus acmenoides'' was first formally described in 1843 by Johannes Conrad Schauer from a specimen collected by Allan Cunningham in a forest in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

in January 1817. The description was published in

Wilhelm Gerhard Walpers Wilhelm Gerhard Walpers (26 December 1816 in Mühlhausen – 18 June 1853 in Berlin) was a German botanist. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation when citing a botanical name. He received his education at the Universities of Greif ...

' book ''Repertorium Botanices Systematicae (Volume 2)''. 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 ...

(''acmenoides'') refers to a similarity to plants in the genus '' Acmena''. This tree is sometimes referred to as the yellow stringybark in parts of

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, however, despite the rough and somewhat stringy bark, this tree is considered to be in the ''mahogany'' group of eucalyptus. ''Eucalyptus acmenoides'' is part of the white mahogany group as recognised by Ken Hill. The others in the group are '' E. mediocris'', '' E. apothalassica'', '' E. carnea'', '' E. helidonica'', '' E. latisinensis'', '' E. psammitica'' and '' E. umbra''.

Distribution and habitat

White mahogany grows in wet forest and woodland, in deeper soils with reliable moisture and is found between areas near the

Atherton Tableland The Atherton Tableland is a fertile plateau, which is part of the Great Dividing Range in Queensland, Australia. It has very deep, rich basaltic soils and the main industry is agriculture. The principal river flowing across the plateau is the B ...

and south to

Port Jackson Port Jackson, commonly known as Sydney Harbour, is a natural harbour on the east coast of Australia, around which Sydney was built. It consists of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta ...

. It is found from sea level to altitudes of . It is most common in warm humid to

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

climates where the annual average rainfall is between .

Timber

White mahogany is well regarded for the high quality of timber. The timber has various uses, including heavy engineering, poles, railway sleepers, bridge and wharf construction, framing, decking stumps, fence posts, joists, flooring, plates and weatherboarding. The sapwood is usually not attacked by the lyctus borer. Heartwood is light, of a pale yellowish brown. The texture is medium and even. Grain structure is uniform, however at times it can be interlocked. Timber somewhat similar to the tallowwood, but not quite as greasy. Wood resistant to

termite Termites are a group of detritivore, detritophagous Eusociality, eusocial cockroaches which consume a variety of Detritus, decaying plant material, generally in the form of wood, Plant litter, leaf litter, and Humus, soil humus. They are dist ...

s. Timber is hard, heavy, strong, tough and durable. Around 1000 kilograms per cubic metre. File:Eucalyptus seedling.JPG, Seedling of ''Eucalyptus acmenoides'' displaying

cotyledons A cotyledon ( ; ; "a cavity, small cup, any cup-shaped hollow", gen. (), ) is a "seed leaf" – a significant part of the embryo within the seed of a plant – and is formally defined as "the embryonic leaf in seed-bearing plants, one or mor ...

File:Acmenoides flower Eastwood.JPG, Flowers of ''Eucalyptus acmenoides''

References

* http://www.timber.net.au/?option=com_species&name=White%20Mahogany&Itemid=469 {{Taxonbar, from=Q3024351 acmenoides Myrtales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Plants described in 1843 Taxa named by Johannes Conrad Schauer