Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Eucalyptus botryoides

Common name

Bangalay, Southern mahogany

Family

Myrtaceae

Where found

Dry forest, woodland, alluvial flats, gullies, and coastal dunes. Coast, ranges, Southern Highlands, and the Sydney area. Planted elsewhere.

Notes

Tree to 40 m tall.  Bark on the trunk and larger branches rough, thick, fibrous, held in coarse plates or strips, often fissured, grey to brown or red-brown.  Smooth bark shedding in short ribbons.  Juvenile stems rounded or square in cross section.  Juvenile leaves opposite each other for a few pairs, then alternating up the stems, 6.5-11.5 cm long, 24-58 mm wide, glossy, green, upper and lower surfaces different colours.  Adult leaves alternating up the stems, 10-22 cm long, 20-70 mm wide, glossy, green, darker green above, paler below.  Flowers white, with 0 petals.  Flower clusters 7-11 flowered.  Mature flower buds 7–14 mm long, caps shorter than the bases.  Flowers Summer.  Gumnuts 5-9 mm in diameter, often angled longitudinally.  Gumnuts that have dropped their seed have valves that are not very noticeable.

It intergrades with Eucalyptus saligna, which is mostly smooth-barked.  Many populations in the area covered by this key (e.g. in Kangaroo Valley) cannot be assigned to either species. 

PlantNET description:   http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Eucalyptus~botryoides  (accessed 22 January, 2021)

EUCLID description:  https://apps.lucidcentral.org/euclid/text/entities/eucalyptus_botryoides.htm  (accessed 22 January, 2021)