Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Eucalyptus sideroxylon

Common name

Mugga ironbark, Red ironbark, Ironbark, Mugga

Family

Myrtaceae

Where found

Woodland and grassy sites. Western Slopes. Tablelands north of the Hume Highway. Blue Mountains. Planted in the ACT, Sydney area, Southern Highlands, and elsewhere.

Notes

Tree to 35 m high. Bark rough as far as the smaller branches or throughout, `ironbark', hard, often deeply furrowed, red-brown to brown-black or black. Smooth bark above, when present, shedding in short ribbons. Branchlets glaucous or non-glaucous. Juvenile leaves opposite each other for about 4 to 7 pairs, then alternating up the stems, 3–15 cm long, 5–35 mm wide, dull green or grey-green, or glaucous. Adult leaves alternating up the stems, 5–14 cm long, 10–40 mm wide, dull, green, grey-green, blue-green, or glaucous. Flower clusters 7-11 flowered. Mature flower buds 6–15 mm long, caps shorter than the base. Outer ring of stamens not producng pollen. Flowers white, cream, red, pink, or yellow, with 0 petals. Gumnuts 5–10 mm in diameter. Gumnuts that have dropped their seed have valves that are not very noticeable.

Intermediates between Eucalyptus tricarpa and Eucalyptus sideroxylon with buds in threes and sevens occur in some populations, e.g. Ben Boyd National Park near Eden.

Rare Vic (as Eucalyptus sideroxylon subsp. sideroxylon).

PlantNET description:   http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Eucalyptus~sideroxylon  (accessed 20 April 2021)

EUCLID description:  https://apps.lucidcentral.org/euclid/text/entities/eucalyptus_sideroxylon.htm  (accessed 20 April 2021)