''Eucalyptus formanii'', commonly known as Die Hardy mallee, Forman's mallee or feather gum, is a species of tree or mallee that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found 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 found els ...

to Western Australia. It has rough bark over most, or all of its trunk, smooth bark above, linear adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven or nine, creamy white flowers and cup-shaped to hemispherical fruit. Eucalyptus formanii buds

Description

''Eucalyptus formanii'' 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 response t ...

. The bark on part or all of the trunk is rough, grey and fibrous or flaky, smooth creamy brown to pinkish grey and shed in scruffy ribbons above. Young plants and

coppice Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which exploits the capacity of many species of trees to put out new shoots from their stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, which is called a copse, young tree stems are repea ...

regrowth have more or less

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 ...

, linear leaves that are long and wide. Adult leaves are also linear, held erect, the same glossy green on both sides when mature, long, wide and sessile or on a petiole up to long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf

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

s in groups of seven or nine on an unbranched

peduncle Peduncle may refer to: *Peduncle (botany), a stalk supporting an inflorescence, which is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed *Peduncle (anatomy), a stem, through which a mass of tissue is attached to a body **Peduncle (art ...

long, the individual buds on

pedicels In botany, a pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence. Such inflorescences are described as ''pedicellate''. Description Pedicel refers to a structure connecting a single flower to its inflorescence. In the absenc ...

long. Mature buds are oval to spindle-shaped, long and about wide with a conical to beaked operculum. Flowering occurs between December and April and the flowers are creamy white. The fruit is a woody, cup-shaped to hemispherical capsule long and wide with the valves slightly above rim level.

Taxonomy and naming

''Eucalyptus formanii'' was first formally described in 1943 by Charles Gardner in the ''

Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia The Royal Society of Western Australia (RSWA) promotes science in Western Australia. The RSWA was founded in 1914. It publishes the '' Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia'', and has awarded the Medal of the Royal Society of Western ...

''. The

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

specimen was collected in sand dunes near the Die Hardy Range, north of

Southern Cross Crux () is a constellation of the southern sky that is centred on four bright stars in a cross-shaped asterism commonly known as the Southern Cross. It lies on the southern end of the Milky Way's visible band. The name ''Crux'' is Latin for ...

by the geologists Francis Gloster Forman and Robert Sackville Matheson. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''formanii'') honours "Francis Gloster Forman, Government Geologist of Western Australia, who brought me .A.Gardnerthe first specimens of this plant." The Die Hardy Ranges, or Mount Geraldine, is a range of hills north of Mount Jackson where there are abandoned gold mines. In 2010, the range was declared a nature reserve.

Distribution

Die Hardy mallee is found on ironstone slopes north of

Bullfinch Bullfinch is a name given to two groups of passerine birds. True bullfinches The true bullfinches are thick-billed finches in the passerine family Fringillidae. They comprise the genus '' Pyrrhula''. These birds are restricted to the Old World, a ...

in the Coolgardie, Murchison and Yalgoo

biogeographic regions A biogeographic realm or ecozone is the broadest biogeographic division of Earth's land surface, based on distributional patterns of terrestrial organisms. They are subdivided into bioregions, which are further subdivided into ecoregions. De ...

of Western Australia, where it grows in sandy soils. It forms part of low woodland communities that cover a substantial part of the base of the

Mount Manning Nature Reserve Mount Manning Range Nature Reserve is a nature reserve in the Goldfields region of Western Australia north of Southern Cross Crux () is a constellation of the southern sky that is centred on four bright stars in a cross-shaped asterism co ...

, occurring on flat sandy plains in broad valleys with sandy loam soil types. The low woodlands on plains are made up of high trees over an understorey of ''

Triodia rigidissima Triodia may refer to: * ''Triodia'' (moth), a genus of moths of the family Hepialidae * ''Triodia'' (plant), a genus of grasses in the family Poaceae {{Genus disambiguation ...

''. The composition of the flora is complex with several intermediate strata of tall and low shrubs consisting of ''

Grevillea acuaria ''Grevillea acuaria'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a rounded, bushy to erect shrub with spreading linear to narrowly elliptic leaves and red flowers arranged ...

'', '' Bossiaea walkeri'' and various species of '' Eremophila''.

Conservation status

This eucalypt is classified as " Priority Four" by the Government of Western Australia

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 ...

, meaning that is rare or near threatened. The

International Union for the Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

list it as a

least concern species A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. Th ...

, noting it has a stable although severeley fragmented population of over 2,000 individuals.

Use in horticulture

The fine, crowded leaves and coppicing features of this eucalypt may have ornamental value.

References