''Eucalyptus cylindriflora'', commonly known as the white mallee
or goldfields white mallee,
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 southwest of
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 bark, glossy green, linear adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, creamy white flowers and cylindrical to cup-shaped fruit.
Description
''Eucalyptus cylindriflora'' 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 ...
. It has smooth white to greyish bark. 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 leaves that are glossy green on the upper surface, dull below, long and wide. The adult leaves are linear, the same glossy green on both sides, 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 flower buds are arranged in groups of seven on a thin
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 oval to cylindrical, long and wide with a conical
operculum. Flowering occurs from December to March and the flowers are creamy white. The fruit is a woody cylindrical to cup-shaped
capsule long and wide.
Taxonomy and naming
''Eucalyptus cylindriflora'' was first formally described in 1925 by
Joseph Maiden
Joseph Henry Maiden (25 April 1859 – 16 November 1925) was a botanist who made a major contribution to knowledge of the Australian flora, especially the genus ''Eucalyptus''. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation when citing ...
and
William Blakely
William Faris Blakely (November 1875 – 1 September 1941) was an Australian botanist and collector. From 1913 to 1940 he worked in the National Herbarium of New South Wales, working with Joseph Maiden on ''Eucalyptus''. Maiden named a red gum ...
from a specimen collected by
Charles Gardner near
Bendering, growing with ''
Melaleuca uncinata
''Melaleuca uncinata'', commonly known as broombush, broom honeymyrtle or brushwood, is a plant in the paperbark family native to southern Australia. It is harvested from the wild, and grown in plantations, for broombush fencing. The Noongar nam ...
''. The description was published in ''
Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales''.
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 ...
(''cylindriflora'') is derived from
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 ...
and refers to the cylinder-shaped flower buds of this species.
Distribution and habitat
White mallee is found on sandplains on the south western
Goldfields-Esperance,
Wheatbelt and
Great Southern regions of Western Australia growing in
mallee shrubland in sandy or clay sand soils with lateritic gravel.
Conservation status
This mallee 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 ...
.
See also
* List of ''Eucalyptus'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15397413
cylindriflora
Endemic flora of Western Australia
Mallees (habit)
Myrtales of Australia
Plants described in 1925
Taxa named by Joseph Maiden
Taxa named by William Blakely