''Eucalyptus crebra'', commonly known as the narrow-leaved ironbark, narrow-leaved red ironbark or simply ironbark, and as muggago in the indigenous

Dharawal The Tharawal people and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people, identified by the Yuin language. Traditionally, they lived as hunter–fisher–gatherers in family groups or clans with ties of kinship, scattered along the coasta ...

language, is a species of small to medium-sized tree

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 Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It has hard, rough " ironbark" from its trunk to small branches, linear to lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, nine or eleven, white flowers and cup-shaped, barrel-shaped or hemispherical fruit. A variable species, it grows in woodland and forest from the

Cape York Peninsula The Cape York Peninsula is a peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth's last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupación Sierra Madre, ...

to near

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. It is an important source of nectar in the honey industry and its hard, strong timber is used in construction. Eucalyptus crebra buds

Description

''Eucalyptus crebra'' is a tree 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 persistent thick, rough, deeply furrowed, greyish black "ironbark" from the base of its trunk to the small branches. 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 linear to lance-shaped or curved leaves long and wide. Adult leaves are linear to lance-shaped, the same dull green to greyish colour on both sides, long and wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in groups of seven, nine or eleven, usually on a branching

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 branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

on the ends of branchlets. Each group is carried on a peduncle long, the individual buds 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 ...

long. Mature buds are club-shaped, spindle-shaped, or diamond-shaped to oval, long and wide and green to yellow with a conical to rounded operculum. Flowering has been recorded in most months and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody cup-shaped, barrel-shaped or hemispherical capsule long and wide on a pedicel long.

Taxonomy and naming

''Eucalyptus crebra'' was first formally described in ''Journal and Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Botany'' by

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

state botanist

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 ...

in 1859. 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 ...

is 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 ...

adjective ''crebra'' meaning "thick", "close" or "numerous", referring to the species' abundance. Narrow-leaved ironbark has included several species, including ''E. drepanophylla'' and ''E. xanthoclada'' but these are regarded as

synonyms A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

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 repanophylla'' is accepted as a separate species by the Queensland Government. Other similar species include '' E. exilipes'', '' E. granitica'', '' E. staigeriana'', '' E. quadricostata'' and '' E. whitei''.

Distribution and habitat

The narrow-leaved ironbark grows in sandy soils in woodland and forest from Picton, southwest of Sydney, north through New South Wales and Queensland to the vicinity of

Cairns Cairns (; ) is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. In the , Cairns had a population of 153,181 people. The city was founded in 1876 and named after William Cairns, Sir W ...

Uses

The tree has a hard, strong, and dark red timber, which has been used for sleepers and construction. A plank has been recorded as being used for Elizabeth Farm, Australia's oldest surviving European dwelling. It is used as a shade tree or to line roadways, and is also available as a cultivar. It is useful in honey production as the flowers are heavy in nectar and pollen; the resulting honey produced by bees is light-coloured and delicately flavoured.

Gallery

File:Starr 020203-0042 Eucalyptus crebra.jpg, ''E. crebra'' open capsules. File:Starr 020203-0045 Eucalyptus crebra.jpg, ''E. crebra'' open capsules. File:Eucalyptus Crebra bark.jpg, ''E. crebra'' bark

References

External links

''Eucalyptus crebra''
{{Authority control crebra Flora of Queensland Flora of New South Wales Drought-tolerant trees Myrtales of Australia Trees of Australia Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller