Eucalyptus Lesouefii
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''Eucalyptus lesouefii'', commonly known as goldfields blackbutt, is a species of
mallet A mallet is a tool used for imparting force on another object, often made of rubber or sometimes wood, that is smaller than a maul or beetle, and usually has a relatively large head. General overview The term is descriptive of the ...
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 central
Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
. It has rough, black bark on the lower trunk, smooth bark above, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, creamy white flowers and cup-shaped fruit.


Description

''Eucalyptus lesouefii'' is a mallet or tree that grows to a height of but does not form 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 rough, flaky or crumbly black bark for up to at the base, smooth brownish, grey or coppery bark above. The trunk is low in height, often thick, dividing to upward spreading branches that become slender and slightly spreading in habit. 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 stems that are more or less square in cross-section and initially
glaucous ''Glaucous'' (, ) is used to describe the pale grey or bluish-green appearance of the surfaces of some plants, as well as in the names of birds, such as the glaucous gull (''Larus hyperboreus''), glaucous-winged gull (''Larus glaucescens''), ...
, egg-shaped leaves long and wide with 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 ...
. Adult leaves are the same dark green colour on both sides, lance-shaped or curved, long and wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in groups of seven in leaf axils 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 pear-shaped to diamond-shaped, long and wide, with a beaked or slightly pointed operculum long. Flowering occurs in August, or from October to December or from January to February and the flowers are creamy white to yellow. The fruit is a woody cup-shaped to bell-shaped capsule, long and wide with the valves more or less at rim level and between ten and twelve deep contours along their length.


Taxonomy and naming

''Eucalyptus lesouefii'' was first formally described in 1912 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 ...
from a specimen he collected near
Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie-Boulder (or just Kalgoorlie) is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder as the surroundi ...
. The description was published in his book in his ''A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus''. 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 ...
honours
Albert Sherbourne Le Souef Albert Sherbourne Le Souef (30 January 1877 – 31 March 1951) was an Australian zoologist. Le Souef was the son of Albert Alexander Cochrane Le Souef (1828–1902) and Caroline Le Souef (1834–1915), daughter of ornithologist John Cotton. Tw ...
for his assistance to Maiden.


Distribution and habitat

The goldfields blackbutt is found on flats and slopes, in alluvial areas and elsewhere, in the Coolgardie,
Great Victoria Desert The Great Victoria Desert is a sparsely populated desert ecoregion and Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australian bioregion in Western Australia and South Australia. History In 1875, British-born Australian explore ...
and Murchison biogeographic regions centred around
Kalgoorlie, Western Australia Kalgoorlie-Boulder (or just Kalgoorlie) is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder as the surrounding ...
. ''Eucalyptus lesouefii'' is generally found on sandy loam, and occasionally with clays or gravel soils.


Uses

The timber, useful as firewood, is light brown and has a high density. Trees are vulnerable to white ant infestation, which occupy individuals of all ages in its native habitat and reduce its utility. A record of it commonly occurring at
Widgiemooltha Widgiemooltha is an Ghost town, abandoned town in Western Australia east of Perth, Western Australia between Kambalda, Western Australia, Kambalda and Norseman, Western Australia, Norseman in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australi ...
was noted in the 1920s. Image:Goldfields Blackbutt in Primer of Forestry Poole 1922.png, Mature tree with man standing at right, circa 1920


References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15396933 Eucalypts of Western Australia Trees of Australia lesouefii Myrtales of Australia Plants described in 1912 Taxa named by Joseph Maiden