Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Eucalyptus smithii

Gumnuts and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Paul Hadobas, between Bungendore and Braidwood

Juvenile foliage. Photographer Jackie Miles

Tree. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, Vic

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

Common name

Ironbark peppermint, Gully gum, Gully peppermint, Blackbutt peppermint

Family

Myrtaceae

Where found

Dry forest, steep rocky slopes, and moist valleys. Coast, ranges, and tablelands.

Notes

Tree or malleee to 45 m tall.  Bark rough to varying heights on the trunk or on the entire trunk, shortly fibrous, compacted, grey-brown to black.  Mallee form usually smooth barked throughout.  Smooth bark shedding in long ribbons, sometimes powdery.  Juvenile stems rounded in cross section, smooth or slightly warty.  Juvenile leaves opposite each other and stem-clasping to the early sapling stage, 5-11 cm long, 6-25 mm wide, green or grey-green, glossy.  Adult leaves alternating up the stems, 6-21 cm long, 7-16 mm wide, green, glossy to dull.  Flowers white, with 0 petals.  Flower clusters 7-flowered.  Mature flower buds 4–7 mm long, caps shorter than or as long as the base.  Flowers Summer-Autumn.  Gumnuts 4-8 mm in diameter. Gumnuts that have dropped their seed have strongly protruding valves. 

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

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