Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Eucalyptus crebra

Flower buds and leaves. Photographer Don Wood, Carnarvon Station Bush Heritage Reserve via Augathella, Qld

Flowers, buds, gumnuts, and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Myall Park Botanic Garden near Glenmorgan, Qld

Tree. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Denise Grieg, Pilliga Scrub north of Coonabarabran

Common name

Narrow-leaved ironbark, Narrow-leaved red ironbark, Ironbark

Family

Myrtaceae

Where found

Forest and woodland. North of Mittagong. Coast, ranges, and Southern Highlands. Rarely elsewhere.

Notes

Tree to 35 m tall.  Bark rough on all but the smallest branches or throughout, hard and deeply furrowed ('ironbark') dark grey to black.  Juvenile stems rounded or square in cross section.  Juvenile leaves opposite each other for a few pairs, then alternating up the stems, 5-12 cm long, 6-17 mm wide, dull, green grey-green.  Adult leaves alternating up the stems, 5.5-18 cm long, 6-27 mm wide, dull, green or grey-green, rarely glaucous.  Flowers white, with 0 petals.  Flower clusters 7-11-flowered, usually forming compound clusters at the ends of the branchlets, sometimes in single flower clusters at the bases of the leaves. Mature flower buds 3–7 mm long, caps as long as the base.  Gumnuts 2.5-6 mm in diameter. Gumnuts that have dropped their seed have valves that are not very noticeable. 

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

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