Eucalyptus gillii

Curly Mallee

Eucalyptus gillii, known as the curly mallee, Arkaroola mallee, or silver mallee, is a species of mallee or small tree that is endemic to inland Australia
It has smooth bark, sometimes with rough bark near the base, often only juvenile, usually glaucous leaves in the crown, flower buds in groups of between seven and eleven, pale yellow flowers and barrel-shaped or shortened spherical fruit

Common name: Curly Mallee

Conservation status: ...

Etymology:

The name Eucalyptus is derived from the Ancient Greek words eu meaning 'good'and kalypto meaning ' cover, conceal, hide', referring to the operculum covering the flower buds
It is named for Walter Gill who collected the type specimen

Flowers:

The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils in groups of seven, nine or eleven on a peduncle 4–15 mm long, the individual buds on pedicels 2–7 mm long
Mature buds are pear-shaped or oval, 8–14 mm long and 3–5 mm wide with a conical to horn-shaped operculum
Flowering mainly occurs from July to November and the flowers are pale yellow

Fruit:

The fruit is a woody, glaucous, barrel-shaped or shortened spherical capsule 4–9 mm long and 5–8 mm wide

Leaves:

It has smooth white to grey bark, sometimes with rough, flaky bark on the trunk and lower branches
Young plants, coppice regrowth and often the crown of mature trees have sessile, greyish blue to glaucous, egg-shaped to heart-shaped leaves that are 20–57 mm long and 20–53 mm wide
Crown leaves are arranged in opposite pairs or alternately, lance-shaped to egg-shaped or heart-shaped, dull green to glaucous, 30–80 mm long and 12–35 mm wide and sessile or on a petiole up to 7 mm long

Stem & branches:

Roots:

Habit:

A mallee that typically grows to a height of 6 m, rarely a tree to 8 m, and forms a lignotuber

Habitat:

It grows in open mallee in gullies and undulating hills, sometimes in pure stands

Distribution:

Mainly occurs in the northern Flinders Ranges, especially between Arkaroola and Nepabunna
It is also found in the Barrier Ranges north of Broken Hill in NSW

Additional notes:

Taxonomy and naming
- Eucalyptus gillii was first formally described in 1912 by Joseph Maiden in his book, A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus from a specimen collected by Walter Gill "80 miles east of Farina to the Flinders Ranges west of Lake Frome, about 400 miles north of Adelaide, at a place called Umberatana"

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