''Eucalyptus cosmophylla'', commonly known as cup gum, bog gum or scrub gum, is a species of small 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 ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. It usually has smooth bark and lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds arranged in groups of three, white flowers and cup-shaped, cylindrical or hemispherical fruit.

Description

''Eucalyptus cosmophylla'' is generally a multi-stemmed mallee growing to a height of , but sometimes a single-stemmed to with smooth, pale grey bark with white/pink areas and is sheds in plates. 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 stems that are more or less square in cross-section and juvenile leaves 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 ...

. They are elliptic at first, later egg-shaped, long and wide. Adult leaves are thick, the same dull grey-green on both sides, long and wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in groups of three on an unbranched peduncle long, the individual buds

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 ...

or on a

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

up to long. Mature buds are oval to pear-shaped, long and wide. They are green to yellow with a rounded or conical to beaked operculum usually shorter than the

hypanthium In angiosperms, a hypanthium or floral cup is a structure where basal portions of the Sepal, calyx, the petal, corolla, and the stamens form a cup-shaped tube. It is sometimes called a floral tube, a term that is also used for corolla tube and cal ...

. Flowering occurs between July and November and the flowers are white to cream-coloured with all

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 ...

being fertile. The fruit is a woody, cup-shaped, cylindrical or hemispherical capsule, long and wide. The fruit generally has two ribs, a thick rim and broad valves with the tips usually just below the rim. The brown seeds are

polyhedral In geometry, a polyhedron (: polyhedra or polyhedrons; ) is a three-dimensional figure with flat polygonal faces, straight edges and sharp corners or vertices. The term "polyhedron" may refer either to a solid figure or to its boundary surfa ...

and have narrow wings along the main edges.

Taxonomy and naming

''Eucalyptus cosmophylla'' was first formally described in 1855 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 ...

from specimens collected "on stony places in the Lofty and Bugle Ranges" and the description was published in ''Transactions and Proceedings of the Victorian Institute for the Advancement of Science''. 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 ...

(''cosmophylla'') 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 ''kosmos'' meaning "ornament", "decoration" or "dress" and ''phyllon'' meaning "leaf".

Distribution and habitat

Cup gum grows near the sea in open shrubland, open forest and heath, usually in soils of low fertility. It is found in the southern Lofty Ranges,

Fleurieu Peninsula The Fleurieu Peninsula ( ; locally mainly ) is a peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia located south of the state capital of Adelaide city centre, Adelaide. History Before British colonisation of South Australia, the western s ...

and on

Kangaroo Island Kangaroo Island (, ) is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island, Northern Territory, Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, southwest of Adelaide. Its closest point to the mainland is Snapper Poi ...

Description

Taxonomy and naming

Distribution and habitat

See also

References

Further reading