''Eucalyptus sideroxylon'', commonly known as mugga ironbark, or red ironbark is a small to medium-sized 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 eastern Australia. It has dark, deeply furrowed

ironbark Ironbark is a common name of a number of species in three taxonomic groups within the genus ''Eucalyptus'' that have dark, deeply furrowed bark. Instead of being shed annually as in many of the other species of ''Eucalyptus'', the dead bark accum ...

, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, white, red, pink or creamy yellow flowers and cup-shaped to shortened spherical fruit.

Description

''Eucalyptus sideroxylon'' is a tree that typically grows to a height of 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 ...

. The bark is dark grey to black, deeply furrowed ironbark on the trunk and larger branches, smooth white to grey on the thinnest branches. 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 lance-shaped to oblong or linear leaves that are long and wide. Adult leaves are lance-shaped, the same shade of green on both sides, long and wide tapering to 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

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 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 oval or diamond-shaped, long and wide with a conical to beaked operculum. Flowering occurs from April to December and the flowers are white, red, pink or creamy yellow. The fruit is a woody cup-shaped to shortened spherical capsule long and wide with the valves below the level of the rim.

Taxonomy and naming

Allan Cunningham recorded the name ''Eucalyptus sideroxylon'' in Thomas Mitchell's 1848 ''Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia'' but did not provide a description of the plant. The first formal description of the species was published in 1887 by

William Woolls William Woolls (30 March 1814 – 14 March 1893) was an Australian botanist, clergyman and schoolmaster. Woolls, the nineteenth child of merchant Edward Woolls, was born at Winchester, England and educated at the grammar school, Bishop's Waltha ...

in ''

Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales The Linnean Society of New South Wales promotes ''the Cultivation and Study of the Science of Natural History in all its Branches'' and was founded in Sydney, New South Wales (Australia) in 1874 and incorporated in 1884. History The Society succ ...

''. 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 ...

(''sideroxylon'') is derived from the

ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

words (), meaning "iron" and (), meaning "wood".Backer, C.A. (1936). ''Verklarend woordenboek der wetenschappelijke namen van de in Nederland en Nederlandsch-Indië in het wild groeiende en in tuinen en parken gekweekte varens en hoogere planten'' (Edition Nicoline van der Sijs). Two subspecies of ''E. sideroxylon'' are accepted by the

Australian Plant Census The Australian Plant Census (APC) provides an online interface to currently accepted, published, scientific names of the vascular flora of Australia, as one of the output interfaces of the national government Integrated Biodiversity Information Sys ...

as at December 2019: * ''Eucalyptus sideroxylon'' subsp. ''improcera''

A.R.Bean Anthony Russell Bean (born 1957) is an Australian botanist who works at the Queensland Herbarium and Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Mount Coot-tha. Since 1982, he has led the Eucalyptus Study Group of the Society for Growing Australian Plants. Caree ...

is a small, stunted tree and has shorter, wider leaves than the

autonym Autonym may refer to: * Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym * Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name See also * Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...

and longer flower buds; * ''Eucalyptus sideroxylon'' A.Cunn. ex Woolls subsp. ''sideroxylon''.

Distribution and habitat

Mugga ironbark is widespread and often abundant in woodland from south-eastern Queensland through New South Wales to Victoria. Subspecies ''improcera'' is only known from the Barakula State Forest north-northwest of

Chinchilla Chinchilla refers to either of two species ('' Chinchilla chinchilla'' and '' Chinchilla lanigera'') of crepuscular rodents of the parvorder Caviomorpha, and are native to the Andes mountains in South America. They live in colonies called "her ...

Uses

The leaves are used in the production of

cineole Eucalyptol (also called cineole) is a monoterpenoid colorless liquid, and a bicyclic ether. It has a fresh camphor-like odor and a spicy, cooling taste. It is insoluble in water, but miscible with organic solvents. Eucalyptol makes up about ...

based

eucalyptus oil Eucalyptus oil is the generic name for distilled oil from the leaves of ''Eucalyptus'', a genus of the plant family Myrtaceae, mostly native to Australia but cultivated worldwide. Eucalyptus oil has a history of wide application, as a pharmace ...

Apiarist A beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees, a profession known as beekeeping. The term beekeeper refers to a person who keeps honey bees in beehives, boxes, or other receptacles. The beekeeper does not control the creatures. The beekeeper o ...

s in New South Wales place hives in red-ironbark woodlands to collect the

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of pl ...

Chemistry

Molecules produced by plants in case of pathogens attacks are called

phytoalexin Phytoalexins are antimicrobial substances, some of which are antioxidative as well. They are defined not by their having any particular chemical structure or character, but by the fact that they are defensively synthesized ''de novo'' by plants ...

s. Such compounds can be implied in the

hypersensitive response In Plant disease resistance, plant immunology, the hypersensitive response (HR) is a mechanism used by plants to prevent the spread of infection by microbial pathogens. HR is characterized by the rapid apoptosis, death of cells in the local regi ...

of plants. High levels of polyphenols (

stilbenoid Stilbenoids are hydroxylated derivatives of stilbene. They have a C6–C2–C6 structure. In biochemical terms, they belong to the family of phenylpropanoids and share most of their biosynthesis pathway with Chalconoid, chalcones. Most stilbenoids ...

s and

ellagitannin image:Castalagin.svg, 130px, Castalagin is a representative ellagitannin, characterized by coupled gallic acid substituents The ellagitannins are a diverse class of hydrolyzable tannins, a type of polyphenol formed primarily from the oxidative link ...

s) in ''E. sideroxylon'' wood can explain its natural

preservation Preservation may refer to: Heritage and conservation * Preservation (library and archival science), activities aimed at prolonging the life of a record while making as few changes as possible * ''Preservation'' (magazine), published by the Nat ...

against rot.

References

Department of Primary Industries: Red Ironbark
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2667019 Flora of New South Wales Flora of Victoria (state) Flora of Queensland Trees of Australia

sideroxylon ''Sideroxylon'' is a genus of trees in the family (biology), family Sapotaceae described as a genus by Carl Linnaeus, Linnaeus in 1753. They are collectively known as bully trees. The generic name is derived from the Greek language, Greek words ...

Myrtales of Australia Ornamental trees Drought-tolerant trees Plants described in 1887