''Eucalyptus incrassata'', commonly known as the lerp mallee, yellow mallee, ridge fruited mallee or rib fruited 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 southern Australia. It has smooth bark, sometimes with rough, ribbony bark near the base, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, creamy white, pale yellow, sometimes pink or red flowers, and cylindrical, barrel-shaped or bell-shaped fruit.

Description

''Eucalyptus incrassata'' is a single stemmed or multi-stemmed mallee that typically grows to a height of but can reach as high as . It will usually grow to a width of and it 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 ...

. The bark is smooth pink to grey or brownish, sometimes with rough grey to brown ribbons near the base. 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 dull bluish green, elliptic to egg-shaped leaves that are long and wide. The adult leaves are arranged alternately, the same glossy green on both sides, lance-shaped, 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 leaf axils in groups of seven on an unbranched peduncle long, the individual buds 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. Mature buds are oblong to pear-shaped, long and wide with a conical operculum. It blooms between August and April producing cream-white-yellow blossoms. The fruit is a woody, cylindrical to barrel-shaped or bell-shaped capsule long and wide with the valves below rim level.

Taxonomy

''Eucalyptus incrassata'' 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 ...

Jacques Labillardière Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardière (28 October 1755 – 8 January 1834) was a French biologist noted for his descriptions of the flora of Australia. Labillardière was a member of a voyage in search of the Jean-François de Galaup, comte ...

in 1806 in his two-volume treatise, ''

Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen ''Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen'' is a two-volume work describing the flora of Australia. Facsimiles of the originals can be found in the onlinBiodiversity Heritage Library (Vol.1)anVol 2) The author was the French botanist Jacques Labillar ...

''. 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 ...

(''incrassata'') means "made thick" or "flattened", referring to the leaves.

Distribution

Lerp mallee is often found along sandplains and hillsides and is distributed from the

Mid West The Mid West region is one of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is a sparsely populated region extending from the west coast of Western Australia, about north and south of its administrative centre of Geraldton and inland to east of W ...

, through the Wheatbelt and along the south coast in the Great Southern and Goldfields-Esperance regions of Western Australia where it grows in sandy soils. It is also found in the south of

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 ...

extending into

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

and

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. This is one of the most widespread mallee species in Australia. It is associated with the western mallee subgroup which is characterised by several eucalypts including '' E. oleosa'', '' E. moderata'', '' E. eremophila'', '' E. foecunda'', '' E. redunca'' and '' E. uncinata''. The understorey is predominantly shrubby with species of ''

Melaleuca ''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles, bottlebrushes or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of '' Leptospermum''). They ...

'' and ''

Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as wattles or acacias, is a genus of about of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa, South America, and Austral ...

'' along with the occasional ''

Triodia 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 ...

''.

Ecology

This eucalypt attracts nectar-eating birds and insects that use it for food and habitat.

Use in horticulture

''E. incrassata'' is used as a shade tree, mass planting will offer good screening, good for erosion control or as a windbreak. It is suitable mediterranean and bush style gardens and responds well to

coppicing 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 ...

. It is tolerant of both

drought A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...

and light

frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor that deposits onto a freezing surface. Frost forms when the air contains more water vapor than it can normally hold at a specific temperature. The process is simila ...

. Able to grow in ordinary soil or enriched soil that is either acidic to alkaline and prefers a position in the full sun. Seeds will germinate in 2 to 6 weeks and it can be grown from cuttings. The tree is susceptible to

powdery mildew Powdery mildew is a fungus, fungal disease that affects a wide range of plants. Powdery mildew diseases are caused by many different species of Ascomycota, ascomycete fungi in the order Erysiphales. Powdery mildew is one of the easier plant disea ...

in the wetter months of winter, it can also be affected by

myrtle rust ''Austropuccinia'' is a monotypic genus of rust (a type of plant pathogen) native to South America with the only species ''Austropuccinia psidii'', commonly known as myrtle rust, guava rust, or ʻōhiʻa rust. It affects plants in the family Myr ...

and by dieback. It is also suitable to produce large amounts of

biomass Biomass is a term used in several contexts: in the context of ecology it means living organisms, and in the context of bioenergy it means matter from recently living (but now dead) organisms. In the latter context, there are variations in how ...

, able to make per hectare per year. In wheatbelt regions it is also beneficial as the tree will reduce

salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt (chemistry), salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensio ...

, give shade to stock, act as a windbreak and reduce

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

References