''Eucalyptus salubris'', commonly known as gimlet, fluted gum tree, gimlet gum and silver-topped gimlet, 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 ...

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 low-rainfall areas of the wheatbelt and goldfields regions of

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 ...

Description

''Eucalyptus salubris'' grows as a mallet, usually from high 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 is one of the nine true gimlet species that have buds in groups of seven. It has smooth, strongly fluted trunks and stems, and white or cream flowers from September to March. The adult leaves are arranged alternately on the branchlets and the same glossy green colour on both sides, with

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 ...

s that are long. The leaf blade is narrowly lance-shaped, usually long and wide with the base tapering to the petiole, and a pointed apex. Flowering occurs from September to March and the flowers are white or cream flowers ,are arranged in groups of seven in the leaf

axil A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, fl ...

s on stout, unbranched peduncles. The groups are broadest near the tip and approximately long. The fruit are

hemispherical A sphere (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ) is a surface (mathematics), surface analogous to the circle, a curve. In solid geometry, a sphere is the Locus (mathematics), set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three ...

to cone-shaped with the narrower end towards the base and wide. The rim of tissue around the edge of the fruit where the "cap" or operculum was attached is level to sloping. The seed capsules remain on trees until the following spring and abundant quantities are often present. There are about 400 viable seeds found in every gram.

Taxonomy

The species was first published in 1876 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 ...

, based on specimens collected at Queen Victoria Spring by Jess Young during the Giles expedition of May 1875. 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 ...

(''salubris'') is a

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 ...

word meaning "healthful", "wholesome" or "beneficial", in reference to the healthy appearance of the tree. The common name refers to the fluted or twisted trunks, resembling a carpenter’s gimlet which is a boring tool. In 1919,

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 ...

described ''E.calyptus salubris'' var. ''glauca'', but this was promoted to species rank as '' E. ravida'' in 1991. Hybrids with '' E. tortilis'' have been reported. The species belongs in ''Eucalyptus'' subgenus ''Symphyomyrtus'' section ''Bisectae'' subsection ''Glandulosae''. This section has buds with two opercula and the cotyledons are bisected and the branchlets have numerous oil glands in the pith. ''E. salubris'' also belongs to a well known small group, the gimlets, notable for the slender fluted, twisted shiny trunks. ''E. salubris'' is one of the nine true gimlet species that have buds in groups of seven, and the only gimlet that is a mallee. The other true gimlets are '' E. campaspe'', '' E. creta'', '' E. diptera'', '' E. jimberlanica'', '' E. ravida'', '' E. terebra'', ''E. effusa'' and '' E. tortilis''. '' Eucalyptus tortilis'' is morphologically closest to ''E. salubris'' differing only in having larger buds with more acute operculum and slightly larger fruit.

Distribution and habitat

This gimlet has a wide distribution, occurring throughout the

Avon Wheatbelt The Avon Wheatbelt is a bioregion in Western Australia. It has an area of . It is considered part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion. Geography The Avon Wheatbelt bioregion is mostly a gently undulating landscape with low rel ...

and Coolgardie biogeographic regions, with outliers as far west as

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

and as far south as Esperance. The relief is generally gentle slopes. It grows in a range of soils: red loams, red clay loams, yellow and red sand, and

laterite Laterite is a soil type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by intensive and prolo ...

. The species is widespread through the Wheatbelt and the southern part of the Goldfields-Esperance regions of Western Australia. It is found from Mullewa in the north-west extending to the south-east near Pingrup and extending east and north as far as Norseman and Zanthus to the western part of the

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 north to around Laverton.

Ecology

Large and unfragmented populations of ''E.salubris'' produced approximately double the number of seeds per capsule as fragmented smaller populations. However, seed weight, seed

germination Germination is the process by which an organism grows from a seed or spore. The term is applied to the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm, the growth of a sporeling from a spore, such as the spores of fungi, ...

, survival of seedlings and vigour of

seedling A seedling is a young sporophyte developing out of a plant embryo from a seed. Seedling development starts with germination of the seed. A typical young seedling consists of three main parts: the radicle (embryonic root), the hypocotyl (embry ...

s in the first year are found to be independent of

population fragmentation Population fragmentation is a form of population segregation. It is often caused by habitat fragmentation. Causes Population fragmentation can be the cause of natural forces or human actions, although in modern times, human activity is the mos ...

or size. Data collected suggest that increased fragmentation and smaller population size can reduce

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by most types of flowers of seed plants for the purpose of sexual reproduction. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced Gametophyte#Heterospory, microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm ...

quality and/or quantity, so that seed production is also reduced.

Uses

The species is used for fence posts, good ornamental attributes or shelterbelt or shade trees for stock. The flowers produce nectar for honey production, pollen has value for apiculture or high

tannin Tannins (or tannoids) are a class of astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules that bind to and Precipitation (chemistry), precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids. The term ''tannin'' is widel ...

content in bark. The

frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor that deposits onto a freezing surface. Frost forms when the air contains more water vapor than it can normally hold at a specific temperature. The process is simila ...

resistant and

drought A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...

tolerant tree is grown throughout the world. In Western Australia its preference for rich loamy soils have resulted in large stands of the species being cleared for farmland.

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=July 2019 salubris Endemic flora of Western Australia Mallees (habit) Myrtales of Australia Eucalypts of Western Australia Trees of Australia Trees of Mediterranean climate Goldfields–Esperance Wheatbelt (Western Australia) Plants described in 1876 Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller