Eucalyptus cordata
Heart-leaved Silver Gum
Heart-leaved Silver Gum
Not at ANBG
Wikipedia links: Angiosperms > Eudicots > Rosids > Myrtaceae > Eucalyptus cordata
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Common name: Heart-leaved Silver Gum
Conservation status: Not threatened
Etymology:
The name Eucalyptus is from the Ancient Greek words eu meaning 'good'and kalypto meaning '(I) cover, conceal, hide', referring to the operculum covering the flower buds
The specific epithet (cordata) is a Latin word meaning "heart-shaped" referring to the leaves
Flowers:
The flower buds are arranged in groups of three in leaf axils on a peduncle 2–9 mm long, the individual buds sessile or on a very short pedicel
Mature buds are oval to club-shaped, green or glaucous, 9–13 mm long and 7–9 mm wide with a rounded, flattened or beaked operculum
Flowering has been observed in most months, with peaks between May and June, September and November, and the flowers are white
Fruit:
The fruit is a woody cup-shaped, cylindrical or hemispherical capsule
7–13 mm long and 9–15 mm wide and sessile or on a very short pedicel
Leaves:
Its crown is mostly composed of juvenile leaves and adult leaves are usually only found at the top of the tallest trees
The leaves of young plants, coppice regrowth and mature plants have sessile leaves arranged in opposite pairs
The leaves egg-shaped to almost round, 30–55 mm long and 20–55 mm wide with wavy edges
Adult leaves, only present in the crown of tall trees, are arranged alternately, lance-shaped, 75–130 mm long and 20–38 mm wide on a flattened petiole 15–20 mm long
Stem & branches:
It has smooth greenish yellow to brown or grey bark throughout and has glaucous branchlets
Larger trees sometimes have rough bark on the lower part of the trunk
Roots:
Habit:
A shrub to medium-sized tree
It is a scraggy shrub or tree that typically grows to a height of between 3 and 25 m and forms a lignotuber
Habitat:
Intermediate altitudes on foothills
Distribution:
Endemic to Tasmania
It has a restricted distribution in the south-east of Tasmania
At intermediate altitudes, such as on the foothills of Mount Wellington, on the Snug Plains and around Port Arthur and Moogara
Subspecies cordata mainly occurs south from Triabunna and is found on Bruny and Maria Islands
Subspecies quadrangulosa is centred on the Wellington Range but is most prolific on the Snug Plains
Additional notes:
Taxonomy and naming
Eucalyptus cordata was first formally described in 1806 by Jacques Labillardière who published the description in Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen
In 2008, Dean Nicolle, Brad Potts and Gay McKinnon described two subspecies and the names have been accepted by the Australian Plant Census:
Eucalyptus cordata Labill. subsp. cordata, that has branchlets that are circular in cross section
Eucalyptus cordata subsp. quadrangulosa D.Nicolle, B.M.Potts & McKinnon, that has branchlets that are square in cross-section
Use
The tree makes an attractive ornamental with its large, glaucous juvenile leaves, which often persist in the crown
Sources of information: