Eucalyptus delegatensis

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information:

Wikipedia links:       Angiosperms > Eudicots > Rosids  >  Myrtaceae > Eucalyptus delegatensis

Other links:     

Plant  information

Common name:                Gum-topped Stringybark  

• Also, alpine ash, white-top an woollybutt

Conservation status:  Least concern

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 (delegatensis) refers to the type location

Flowers:     

• The flower buds are arranged in groups of between seven and fifteen in leaf axils on an unbranched peduncle 8–20 mm long, the individual buds on a pedicel 3–5 mm long

• Mature buds are oval to club-shaped, green to yellow or red, 4–5 mm long and wide with a conical or rounded operculum with a small point on the tip

• Flowering occurs between December and March and the flowers are white

Fruit:                         

• The fruit is a woody barrel-shaped to hemispherical capsule 6–11 mm long and wide with the valves near rim level or enclosed in the fruit

Leaves:         

• Young plants and coppice regrowth have broadly lance-shaped to egg-shaped leaves 70–200 mm long and 27–82 mm wide

• Adult leaves are lance-shaped to curved, the same glossy green to bluish green on both sides, 75–230 mm long and 13–55 mm wide on a petiole 10–45 mm long

Stem & branches: 

• The bark is rough, grey to black, fibrous or stringy on the lower half of the trunk

• Smooth white to greyish above

Roots:         

Habit:        

• A tree that typically grows to a height of 40–50 m, sometimes to 90 m, and forms a lignotuber

Habitat:   

• Often dominant in grassy or wet subalpine forest, in deep fertile soil, often on slopes

• In Victoria it occurs at altitudes between 900 and 1,500 m 

Distribution:                  

• Endemic to southeastern Australia

• Alpine ash is widespread and commonly forms pure stands

• In NSW and the ACT it is found south from the Brindabella Range 

• In Victoria it occurs east of Mount Macedon

• Subspecies tasmaniensis is endemic to Tasmania

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy and naming

  • It was first formally described in 1900 by Richard Thomas Baker from a specimen collected by William Baeuerlen, (previously known as Wilhelm Bäuerlen) on "Delegate Mountain"

  • The description was published in Proceedings of the Linnean Society of NSW

  • In 1985 Douglas John Boland described two subspecies and the names have been accepted by the Australian Plant Census:

    • Eucalyptus delegatensis R.T.Baker subsp. delegatensis[10] that has broadly lance-shaped juvenile leaves and is found in NSW and Victoria

    • Eucalyptus delegatensis subsp. tasmaniensis Boland that has more or less round juvenile leaves with a short "drip-tip" and only grows in Tasmania

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus_delegatensis (2023)