Corymbia intermedia flowers and foliage 2

''Corymbia intermedia'', commonly known as pink bloodwood, is a species of medium to tall tree 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 north-eastern Australia. It has rough, tessellated bark on the trunk and branches, flower buds in groups of seven, white flowers and oval to barrel-shaped fruit.

Description

The pink bloodwood is tree that can reach in height with a spread. The bark is rough, tessellated, light brown to grey in colour and extends from the trunk to the 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 lance-shaped, dark green leaves that are paler on the lower surface, long and wide and petiolate. Adult leaves are arranged alternately, leathery, paler on the lower surface, lance-shaped, long and wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged on the ends of branchlets on a branched peduncle long, each branch of the peduncle with seven 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 pear-shaped to oval, long and wide with a conical to rounded or beaked operculum. Flowering occurs from December to March and the profuse perfumed white or cream flowers are up to in diameter. The fruit is an urn-shaped, oval or barrel-shaped capsule long and wide with a short neck and the valves enclosed in the fruit. The pink bloodwood resembles the red bloodwood, and the two species co-occur in central New South Wales. The latter species can be distinguished by its larger gumnuts and winged seeds.

Taxonomy

Richard Thomas Baker Richard Thomas Baker (1 December 1854 – 14 July 1941) was an Australian economic Botany, botanist, museum curator and educator. Early life Baker was born in Woolwich, England, son of Richard Thomas Baker, a blacksmith, and his wife Sarah, née ...

was the first to formally describe the pink bloodwood in 1901, naming it ''Eucalyptus intermedia'', and publishing the description in ''

Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales The Linnean Society of New South Wales promotes ''the Cultivation and Study of the Science of Natural History in all its Branches'' and was founded in Sydney, New South Wales (Australia) in 1874 and incorporated in 1884. History The Society succ ...

''. The species name is derived from 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 ''intermedius'' and is based on the intermediate nature of the oils between the red and yellow bloodwoods. In 1995, the genus ''Eucalyptus'' was split into three genera by Ken Hill and Lawrie Johnson, with ''E. intermedia'' transferred into ''

Corymbia ''Corymbia'', commonly known as bloodwoods, is a genus of about one hundred species of tree that, along with ''Eucalyptus'', '' Angophora'' and several smaller groups, are referred to as eucalypts. Until 1990, corymbias were included in the g ...

''. Hill and Johnson classified ''Corymbia intermedia'' in its own series ''Intermediae'', A combined analysis of nuclear rDNA (ETS + ITS) and morphological characters published in 2009 found it to be closely related to '' C. trachyphloia'' and '' C. hendersonii''. ''C. intermedia'' and other species were placed in the large section ''Septentrionales'' within the subgenus ''Corymbia''. The common name comes from the gum veins in the wood.

Distribution and habitat

The species is found in New South Wales from

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

northwards into Queensland, as far as to Cape York — a total range of — and within of the eastern coastline. It thrives on loamy and sandy soils, and has been found on altitudes of up to , with annual rainfall of 750–2200 mm and predominantly summer rain. It grows in open forest, or occasionally lone trees grow in closed forest or on the margins of rainforests. It is associated with such species as carbeen ('' Corymbia tesselaris''), broad-leaved stringybark ('' Eucalyptus caliginosa''), forest red gum ('' E. tereticornis''), narrow-leaved ironbark ('' E. crebra''), scribbly gum ('' E. racemosa''), grey gum ('' E. propinqua''), blackbutt ('' E. pilularis''), flooded gum ('' E. grandis''), red mahogany ('' E. resinifera''), and black sheoak (''

Allocasuarina littoralis ''Allocasuarina littoralis'', commonly known as black she-oak, is a species of flowering plant in the family Casuarinaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is dioecious, or less commonly a monoecious tree or shrub, that has its leaves redu ...

'') and red wattle ('' Acacia flavescens'') in coastal north Queensland.

Ecology

In Bungawalbin National Park in northern New South Wales, the

squirrel glider The squirrel glider (''Petaurus norfolcensis'') is a nocturnal gliding possum. The squirrel glider is one of the wrist-winged gliders of the genus '' Petaurus''. Habitat This species' home range extends from Bordertown near the South Austral ...

( ''Petaurus norfolcensis'') has been observed biting and gouging into the bark to make a wound on the trunk of the pink bloodwood and then lick the sap out. The behaviour has also been recorded for the

yellow-bellied glider The yellow-bellied glider (''Petaurus australis''), also known as the fluffy glider, is an arboreal and nocturnal gliding possum that lives in native eucalypt forests in eastern Australia, from northern Queensland south to Victoria. Habitat Th ...

('' P. australis'') for this species. Study of the forest habitat of the

sugar glider The sugar glider (''Petaurus breviceps'') is a small, omnivorous, arboreal, and nocturnal gliding possum. The common name refers to its predilection for sugary foods such as sap and nectar and its ability to glide through the air, much lik ...

(''P. breviceps'') and

mahogany glider The mahogany glider (''Petaurus gracilis'') is an endangered gliding possumheartwood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

is hard and durable usable for building fences and bridges. The sawdust of pink bloodwood is an irritant to eyes and skin.
''Corymbia intermedia'' may be used as a

rootstock A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It could also be described as a stem with a well developed root system, to which a bud from another plant is grafted. It can refer to ...

, onto which the ornamental

Corymbia ficifolia ''Corymbia ficifolia'', commonly known as red flowering gum, is a species of small tree that is Endemism, endemic to the South West (Western Australia), south-west of Western Australia. It has rough, fibrous bark on the trunk and branches, eg ...

is grafted.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7188999

intermedia Intermedia is an art theory term coined in the mid-1960s by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins to describe the strategies of interdisciplinarity that occur within artworks existing between artistic genres. It was also used by John Brockman to refer to ...

Myrtales of Australia Flora of Queensland Flora of New South Wales Plants described in 1901