Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Eucalyptus obliqua

Flowers, buds, gumnuts, and leaves. Photographer Chris Clarke, north of Bendigo, Vic

Juvenile regrowth. Photographer James Booth, Macedon Ranges, Vic

Bark. Photographer Arthur Chapman, Melbourne, Vic

Trees. Photographer David Francis, Macedon Ranges, Vic

Line drawings. c. juvenile (right) and adult (left) leaves; buds and gumnuts. KR Thiele, Australian National Herbarium, © 2021 Royal Botanic Gardens Board, Melbourne, Vic

Common name

Messmate, Messmate stringybark

Family

Myrtaceae

Where found

Forest and grassy areas. Ranges, tablelands, and ACT. Coastal, but rarely coastal north of Eden.

Notes

Tree to 90 m tall, sometimes a mallee.  Bark rough on all but the smallest branches or sometimes the branches less than 8 cm diameter smooth.  Rough bark stringy or fibrous, longitudinally furrowed, brown to grey brown or red-brown.  Smooth bark shedding in ribbons.  Juvenile stems rounded or square in cross section, warty or smooth.  Juvenile leaves opposite each other for 2-7 pairs, then alternating up the stems, 6-21 cm long, 23-85 mm wide, glossy, green.  Adult leaves alternating up the stems, 6-22 cm long, 15-70 mm wide, glossy, green.  Flowers white, with 0 petals.  Flower clusters 11-15+ flowered.  Mature flower buds 4–9 mm long, caps shorter than the base.  Flowers most of the year.  Gumnuts 5-11 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~obliqua  (accessed 22 January, 2021)

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