Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Eucalyptus tereticornis
Common name
Forest red gum, Blue gum, Red irongum
Family
Myrtaceae
Where found
Forest to grassy woodland. Coast and ranges north from Eden.
subsp. basaltica: mainly north from the Sydney area. Sparadically as far south as Cobargo.
subsp. tereticornis: north from Eden.
Notes
Tree to 50 m tall. Bark smooth throughout, sometimes with grey flakes of rough bark at the base of large trunks. Smooth bark shedding in large plates or flakes. Juvenile stems usually square in cross section and prominently winged. Juvenile leaves opposite each other for 5–8 pairs then alternating up the stems, 6-13 cm long, 30-80 mm wide, glossy or dull, blue-green or green. Adult leaves alternating up the stems, 8-22 cm long, 10-35 mm wide, glossy or dull, green. Flowers white, with 0 petals. Flower clusters 7-11 flowered. Mature flower buds 9–20 mm long, caps much longer than the base. Flowers most of the year. 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~tereticornis (accessed 1 May 2021)
PlantNET has not yet included a key to subspecies.
subsp. basaltica: egg-shaped flower buds with a conical cap not dilated at its base and only 2–3 times the length of the base
subsp. tereticornis: horn-shaped flower bud caps dilated at its base; cap 4–7 times length of base
Hybrids with Eucalyptus robusta are not uncommon where they occur in close proximity. Intergrades with Eucalyptus blakelyi.
EUCLID description: https://apps.lucidcentral.org/euclid/text/entities/eucalyptus_tereticornis_subsp._tereticornis.htm (accessed 1 May 2021)
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