Eucalyptus delegatensis
Gum-topped Stringybark
Gum-topped Stringybark
Wikipedia links: Angiosperms > Eudicots > Rosids > Myrtaceae > Eucalyptus delegatensis
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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: