Eucalyptus stellulata

Location & distribution maps

Common name:         Black Sallee 

• The Australian Oxford Dictionary gives the origin of "sally" and "sallee" as British dialect variants of "sallow", meaning "a willow tree, especially one of a low-growing or shrubby kind"

• The Wiradjuri people of NSW use the name guulany for the species

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 

• The specific epithet (stellulata) is derived from a Latin word meaning "little star" and refers to the appearance of the clustered flower buds

Flowers:                  

• The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils in a star-like cluster of between nine and fifteen on an unbranched peduncle 1–6 mm long, the individual buds sessile

• Mature buds are spindle-shaped, 4–6 mm long and about 2 mm wide with a pointed, conical operculum

• Flowering occurs between February and May and the flowers are white

Fruit:                         

• The fruit is a sessile, cup-shaped or shortened spherical capsule 3–5 mm long and wide with the valves near rim level

Leaves:         

• Young plants and coppice regrowth have sessile, elliptical leaves arranged in opposite pairs, 40–100 mm long and 30–50 mm wide

• Adult leaves are arranged alternately, the same glossy green on both sides, lance-shaped to elliptical, 47–110 mm long and 9–32 mm wide tapering to a petiole 4–13 mm long

• The leaf veins are almost parallel.

Stem & branches: 

• It has rough, shortly fibrous greyish bark on the lower trunk, smooth olive green bark that is somewhat oily above

Roots:         

Habit:        

• A tree or mallee that typically grows to a height of 15 m and forms a lignotuber

Habitat:   

• It is a common plant in grassy eucalyptus woodland, often near swamps and by streams

• The soils are usually of a relatively good fertility

Distribution:                  

• Black sallee occurs from near Tenterfield in NSW and southwards along the Great Dividing Range to the eastern highlands of Victoria

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy and naming

  • Eucalyptus stellulata was first formally described in 1828 by the Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in his book Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus_stellulata (2024)