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home | glossary | about eucalypts | about EUCLID | browse species Eucalyptus apiculata |
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Narrow-leaved mallee ash |
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Eucalyptus apiculata R. Baker & H.G.Smith, Research Eucalypts 198 (1902). T: Berrima, N.S.W., 10 May 1899, J.J.Fletcher s.n.; syn: K, NSW; Mittagong, N.S.W., 29 July 1901, J.J.Hook 108; syn: K. E. laophila L.Johnson & Blaxell, Telopea 4: 256 (1991). T: N.S.W., Central Tablelands, Wolgan Gap, L.Johnson, 12 April 1953; (NSW 27182). Slender mallee to 6 m tall. Bark smooth, cream, grey, brown or green. Juvenile stem rounded or slightly square in cross-section, scabrid on lower internodes; juvenile opposite, sessile and amplexicaul for 3-4 nodes, then alternate, petiolate, narrowly lanceolate to linear, to 16 cm long, 0.8-2 cm wide, base tapering, glossy, dark green. Adult leaves alternate, petiolate, narrowly falcate to lanceolate to linear, 3.5-11 cm long, 0.3-0.7 cm wide, base tapering evenly to petiole, margin entire, concolorous, glossy, green, venation very acute or side veins obscure, sparsely reticulate, intramarginal vein well removed from margin, oil glands island. Inflorescences axillary unbranched, peduncles 0.5-1 cm long, 7-flowered; buds pedicellate, clavate, warty, scar absent, operculum conical and apiculate, stamens irregularly flexed, anthers reniform to cordate, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by confluent slits, style long, locules 3 or 4, the placentae each with 2 vertical ovule rows; flowers white. Fruit pedicellate, cup-shaped, urceolate, or barrel-shaped, 0.6-1 cm wide, disc descending, valves 3 or 4, enclosed. Seed pale to mid brown, 1-1.8 mm long, pyramidal or obliquely pyramidal, dorsal surface smooth, hilum terminal. NOTES Eucalyptus apiculata (Latin apiculatus, apiculate, ending abruptly in a point, refers to the leaves) A green-leaved mallee ash of the Central Tablelands of New South Wales on sandstone-derived soils from east of Rylstone south to Berrima. It has linear leaves which distinguish it from E. stricta which has narrow-lanceolate leaves and clearly from E. burgessiana which has lanceolate leaves. The green-leaved mallee ashes grade into each other in leaf dimensions and each of the three recognised here, apiculata (leaves to 0.7 cm wide), stricta (leaves to 1.6 cm wide) and burgessiana (leaves to 2.5 cm wide), have synonyms that reflect the gradient but are scarcely applicable taxonomically. |
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