''Eucalyptus kybeanensis'', commonly known as the Kybean mallee ash, is a species of mallee or 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 south eastern Australia. It has smooth, white or greyish bark, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, nine or eleven, white flowers and conical or hemispherical fruit. Eucalyptus kybeanensis base

Description

''Eucalyptus kybeanensis'' is a mallee that typically grows to a height of , rarely a tree to , 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 grey or greenish bark, sometimes with insect scribbles and sometimes with a short stocking of rough bark at 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 warty stems and glossy green, lance-shaped or curved leaves that are long and wide. Adult leaves are the same glossy green on both sides, lance-shaped or curved, 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, nine or eleven on an unbranched peduncle, the individual buds 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 ...

. Mature buds are oval to oblong, long and wide with a rounded to flattened operculum. Flowering occurs between September and December and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody conical or hemispherical capsule long and wide with the valves near rim level.A Field Guide to Eucalypts - Brooker & Kleinig volume 1, page 106

Taxonomy and naming

''Eucalyptus kybeanensis'' was first formally described in 1915 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 Richard Cambage from a specimen collected by Cambage on 4 November 1908, and that "grew on sandy conglomerate formation at Kybean, amongst ''Casuarina nana'', Sieber, near the Kydra Trigonometrical Station, on the Great Dividing Range, 4,000 feet above sea-level, sixteen miles easterly from Nimitybelle". The specific epithet (''kybeanensis'') refers to the locality of Kybean in New South Wales.

Distribution and habitat

Kybean mallee ash grows in exposed positions at high altitude where it is often locally dominant in

subalpine Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

mallee scrubs. It occurs south from near Kybean in the far south-west of New South Wales and in the Victorian High Country.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5405607 Myrtales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of Victoria (state) Trees of Australia Mallees (habit) Plants described in 1915 Taxa named by Joseph Maiden