''Eucalyptus largiflorens'', or black box or river box, is a 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 ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It has rough, fibrous or flaky bark, dull greenish-grey, lance-shaped leaves, oval to club-shaped green to yellow flower buds, white flowers and hemispherical, cup-shaped or barrel-shaped fruit.

Description

''Eucalyptus largiflorens'' is a tree that grows to a height of with rough bark to the thinnest branches. The bark is dark grey and fibrous or flaky, sometimes furrowed on the trunk. The leaves on young trees are dull greyish green to bluish, linear to narrow lance-shaped, long and wide. Adult leaves are lance-shaped, the same shade of green on both sides, long and wide. The flowers are arranged in groups of mostly between seven and eleven on the ends of the branches or in leaf axils on a cylindrical peduncle long, individual flowers on a cylindrical pedicel long. The mature buds are green to yellow, oval to club-shaped, long and wide. The operculum is hemispherical to cone-shaped, shorter and narrower than the flower cup. The

stamen The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...

s are white. Flowering occurs in most months but especially in autumn and spring. The fruit is a hemispherical to oval capsule, long and wide.

Taxonomy

''Eucalyptus largiflorens'' was first formally described in 1855 by

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Victoria, Australia ...

and the description was published in ''Transactions and Prodeedings of the Victorian Institute for the Advancement of Science''. 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 ...

(''largiflorens'') 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 ...

words ''largus'' meaning "abundant" and ''florens'' meaning "blooming", referring to the size of 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 branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

Distribution

The black box is widespread in

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

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 ...

, Victoria and

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 ...

, especially in grassy woodland on the floodplains of the Murray–Darling basin, but usually in dryer sites than river red gum ('' E. camaldulensis''). The total area occupied by ''E.largiflorens'' prior to colonisation was but has now been reduced to and the population is now severely fragmented. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature listed it as a

vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened species, threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatened species, ...

in 2019.

Use by Indigenous Australians

The small seeds of the black box were eaten raw by

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

when grass seeds were scarce. Fruiting branches were cut down and placed in the sun to induce the capsules to open. Once the seeds were extracted, they were soaked and treated with several changes of water to remove the bitterness. They were then dried, ground on a grinding stone, and eaten raw.

References

{{Authority control Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Flora of South Australia Flora of Victoria (state) Trees of Australia largiflorens Myrtales of Australia Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller Plants described in 1848

Description

Taxonomy

Distribution

Use by Indigenous Australians

See also

References