''Eucalyptus capillosa'', commonly known as wheatbelt wandoo, or mallee wandoo, is a species of tree or 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 ...

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 ...

. It has smooth, grey bark, lance-shaped to elliptic adult leaves, spindle-shaped flower buds in groups of nine to thirteen, white flowers and barrel-shaped to cylindrical fruit. Eucalyptus capillosa subsp

Description

''Eucalyptus capillosa'' is a tree or 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 ...

. It has smooth, sometimes powdery grey bark with pink or pale orange patches. The leaves on young plants are lance-shaped,

glaucous ''Glaucous'' (, ) is used to describe the pale grey or bluish-green appearance of the surfaces of some plants, as well as in the names of birds, such as the glaucous gull (''Larus hyperboreus''), glaucous-winged gull (''Larus glaucescens''), ...

, long and wide. Adult leaves are the same dull green on both sides, linear to elliptic, long and wide on 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 ...

long. The flowers 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 nine, eleven or thirteen on a 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. The mature buds are spindle-shaped, long and wide with a conical operculum about twice as long as the floral cup and the same width at the join. The flowering period is from December to May and the flowers are white. The fruit is a conical to barrel-shaped capsule long and wide with the valves usually level with the rim. ''Eucalyptus capillosa'' is a closely related and very similar to '' E. wandoo'' but differs in having hairy seedlings with more leaves arranged in opposite pairs, and adult leaves that are green rather than blue-green or glaucous.

Taxonomy and naming

''Eucalyptus capillosa'' was first formally described by the

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

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 ...

in 1991 from a specimen near Merredin and the description was published in the journal ''

Nuytsia ''Nuytsia floribunda'' is a hemiparasitic tree found in Western Australia. The species is known locally as moodjar and, more recently, the Christmas tree or Western Australian Christmas tree. The display of intensely bright flowers during the ...

''. 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 ...

(''capillosa'') 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 "hairy", referring to the hairy seedlings. Brooker and Hopper described two

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

that have been accepted by 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 ...

: * ''Eucalyptus capillosa'' subsp. ''capillosa'' is a small to medium-sized tree; * ''Eucalyptus capillosa'' subsp. ''polyclada'' is a mallee to . The name ''polyclada'' is derived from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

words ''polys'' meaning "many" and ''klados'' meaning "branch", "twig" or "stem", referring to the mallee habit of this subspecies.

Distribution and habitat

Wheatbelt wandoo (subspecies ''capillosa'') is found in the central and eastern wheatbelt where it grows in low, open heath, mainly east of Pithara,

Kellerberrin, Western Australia Kellerberrin is a town in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, east of Perth on the Great Eastern Highway. The town serves as a stop on the ''Prospector'' and ''MerredinLink'' rural train services. It is also located on the Golden Pipe ...

and Corrigin. Mallee wandoo (subspecies ''polyclada'') grows on gravelly slopes in tall mallee in the central wheatbelt from Pithara to near Hyden and

Lake Grace A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a depression (geology), basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land an ...

. ''Eucalyptus capillosa'' often forms open woodlands with a diverse understorey. Other species found in the upper storey include '' E. salmonophloia'' and occasionally '' E. salubris'', ''E. loxophleba'' subsp. ''loxophleba'' and '' E. transcontinentalis''.

Conservation status

This eucalypt is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and en ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15395946 Eucalypts of Western Australia Trees of Australia capillosa Myrtales of Australia Plants described in 1991 Taxa named by Ian Brooker Taxa named by Stephen Hopper Endemic flora of Southwest Australia

Description

Taxonomy and naming

Distribution and habitat

Conservation status

See also

References