Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Eucalyptus houseana W.Fitzg. ex Maiden


Tree
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Fruit. © R.L. Barrett
Fruit. © R.L. Barrett
Leaves. © R.L. Barrett
Habit and trunk. © R.L. Barrett
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Juvenile leaves. © R.L. Barrett
Cotyledon stage, epigeal germination. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Family

Fitzgerald, W.V. (1916) Journal and Proceedings Royal Society New South Wales 49: 318. Type: Isdell River near Mount Barnett Homestead, Kimberleys, North Western Australia. No. 1014, collected by W.V. Fitzgerald, May, 1905.

Common name

Kimberley White Gum; Tropical White Gum

Stem

Bark mainly smooth, white to light grey in colour, extending from the butt to the finer branches.

Leaves

Oil dots quite numerous, closely spaced. Leaf blades about 8-15 x 1.5-3.5 cm, broadest towards the base.

Flowers

Peduncle slightly flattened. Individual flowers +/- sessile. Operculum hemispherical, about 3-4 mm diam., length equal to or shorter than the calyx tube (hypanthium). Outer operculum shed early, well before the mature bud stage.

Fruit

Fruits sessile, turbinate or obconical, about 5 x 5 mm. Valves 3-4, not exserted. Seeds not winged.

Seedlings

Cotyledons truncate or bilobed at the apex. Oil dots more common about the margins. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade ovate, apex obtuse; oil dots visible with a lens. Lignotuber present. Seed germination time 11 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to WA. Altitudinal range probably small, from sea level to 300 m. Grows in open forest and woodland, usually in swampy soils but sometimes found around the margins of swampy rain forest.

RFK Code
981
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