''Eucalyptus caesia'', commonly known as caesia or gungurru, is a species of 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 the

south-west The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A ''compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each ...

of Western Australia. It has smooth reddish brown bark at first, later shedding in curling flakes, lance-shaped, sometimes curved adult leaves, club-shaped flower buds covered with a waxy, bluish white bloom, pink

stamen The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...

s with yellow

anthers The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filamen ...

and urn-shaped fruit.

Description

''Eucalyptus caesia'' is a mallee 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 ...

. The bark is smooth reddish brown at first and is shed in curling longitudinal flakes known as "minnirichi". Young branches are shiny red, covered with a waxy, bluish white bloom. 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 thick, glossy green, heart-shaped leaves long and wide that have 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 ...

. Adult leaves are lance-shaped to curved, mostly long and wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf

axil A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, fl ...

s in groups of three on an unbranched peduncle long, the individual flowers 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 flower buds are oval or pear-shaped, covered with a whitish waxy bloom, long and wide with a conical operculum. Flowering mainly occurs between May and September and the flowers have pink stamens with yellow anthers on the tip. The fruit is a woody bell-shaped or urn-shaped capsule long and wide on a peduncle long.

Taxonomy and naming

''Eucalyptus caesia'' was first formally described in 1867 by

George Bentham George Bentham (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studie ...

from a collection made by James Drummond in 1847 and the description was published in ''

Flora Australiensis ''Flora Australiensis: a description of the plants of the Australian Territory'', more commonly referred to as ''Flora Australiensis'', and also known by its standard abbreviation ''Fl. Austral.'', is a seven-volume Flora of Australia published b ...

''. In 1982,

Ian Brooker Murray Ian Hill Brooker Order of Australia, AM (2 June 1934 – 25 June 2016), better known as Ian Brooker, was an Australian botanist. He was widely recognised as the leading authority on the genus ''Eucalyptus''. Ian Brooker was born in Adelai ...

and

Stephen Hopper Stephen Donald Hopper (born 18 June 1951) is a Western Australian botanist. He graduated in Biology, specialising in conservation biology and vascular plants. Hopper has written eight books, and has over 200 publications to his name. He was Direc ...

described two subspecies, but 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 ...

accepts these as synonyms: * ''Eucalyptus caesia'' subsp. ''caesia'' grows to a height of with smaller leaves, buds and fruit than the other subspecies; * ''Eucalyptus caesia'' subsp. ''magna'' grows to a height of with pendulous branches and larger leaves, buds and fruit. 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 ...

(''caesia'') is a

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 meaning "bluish grey" referring to the waxy cover of the small branches, flower buds and fruit.

Distribution and habitat

Caesia grows in crevices at the base of

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

outcrops in scattered inland areas of the south-west, including in the

Avon Wheatbelt The Avon Wheatbelt is a bioregion in Western Australia. It has an area of . It is considered part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion. Geography The Avon Wheatbelt bioregion is mostly a gently undulating landscape with low rel ...

and Mallee biogeographic regions. The species is known to be

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, ...

tolerant.

Ecology

Despite persisting as very small populations, this species does not seem to exhibit effects of inbreeding depression. Associated species include '' Eucalyptus crucis'', ''

Eucalyptus loxophleba ''Eucalyptus loxophleba'', commonly known as York gum, daarwet, goatta, twotta or yandee, is a species of tree or Mallee (habit), mallee that is Endemism, endemic to Western Australia. It has rough bark on the trunk, smooth olive to brownish bark ...

'', '' Allocasuarina huegeliana'' and '' Acacia lasiocalyx''.

Use in horticulture

A form known as 'Silver Princess' is described as a "graceful weeping tree" that has an irregular and weeping form. Propagation is from seed, which germinates readily.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q962750

External links

Eucalyptus caesia
Association of Societies for Growing Australian Plants (ASGAP)

Trees of Australia Eucalypts of Western Australia Myrtales of Australia

caesia ''Caesia'' is a genus of herbs in the family Asphodelaceae, subfamily Hemerocallidoideae,Stevens, P.F. (2001 onwards)"Hemerocallidoideae" ''Angiosperm Phylogeny Website''. Retrieved 2016-06-10. native to Australia, New Guinea, Madagascar and Sou ...

Plants described in 1867 Mallees (habit) Taxa named by George Bentham Endemic flora of Southwest Australia