''Eucalyptus microcarpa'', commonly known as grey box, is a species of tree that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found 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 found els ...

to southeastern continental Australia. It has rough, fibrous or flaky bark on the trunk, smooth whitish bark above, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of between seven and eleven, white flowers and oval, cylindrical or urn-shaped fruit.

Description

''Eucalyptus microcarpa'' is a spreading tree, sometimes with several trunks, that typically grows to a height of and forms a lignotuber. It has rough, fibrous or flaky bark on the trunk as far as the larger branches, smooth greyish or whitish bark above. Young plants and coppice regrowth have dull green to bluish leaves long and wide and

petiolate 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, a ...

. Adult leaves are the same shade of green on both sides, lance-shaped, long and wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged on a branched

peduncle Peduncle may refer to: *Peduncle (botany), a stalk supporting an inflorescence, which is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed *Peduncle (anatomy), a stem, through which a mass of tissue is attached to a body **Peduncle (art ...

, in groups of between seven and eleven, the peduncle long, the individual buds on

pedicels In botany, a pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence. Such inflorescences are described as ''pedicellate''. Description Pedicel refers to a structure connecting a single flower to its inflorescence. In the absenc ...

long. Mature buds are oval to spindle-shaped or diamond-shaped, long and wide with a conical to beaked operculum. Flowering occurs between February and June and the flowers are white or cream coloured. The fruit is a woody cup-shaped, cylindrical or barrel-shaped capsule long and wide with the valved near rim level or below it.

Taxonomy

Grey box was first formally described in 1902 by Joseph Maiden who gave it the name ''Eucalyptus hemiphloia'' var. ''microcarpa'' in the '' Transactions, proceedings and report, Royal Society of South Australia''. (''Eucalyptus hemiphloia'' had previously been described by

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 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 Vic ...

, but that name is now accepted as a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are al ...

of '' Eucalyptus moluccana''.) In 1923, Maiden raised the variety to species status as ''E. microcarpa''. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''microcarpa'') means "small-fruited".

Distribution and habitat

''Eucalyptus microcarpa'' occurs in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australiais widespread and locally abundant inland from the Great Dividing Range in New South Wales. In Victoria it is found from the

Wimmera The Wimmera is a region of the Australian state of Victoria. The district is located within parts of the Loddon Mallee and the Grampians regions; and covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee scrub, east of the South Aust ...

east to south of Benalla and also occurs in Queensland. In South Australia, its distribution includes the

Mount Lofty Ranges The Mount Lofty Ranges are a range of mountains in the Australian state of South Australia which for a small part of its length borders the east of Adelaide. The part of the range in the vicinity of Adelaide is called the Adelaide Hills and ...

and Heywood Park near

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

. It is associated with grassy woodland and loamy soils.

Conservation status

This eucalypt is a component of the grey box (''E. microcarpa'') grassy woodlands and derived native grasslands of south- eastern Australia that is listed as "endangered" under the Australian Government ''

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 The ''Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that provides a framework for protection of the Australian environment, including its biodiversity and its natural and cult ...

''.

References

External links