''Corymbia terminalis'', also known as tjuta, joolta, bloodwood, desert bloodwood, plains bloodwood, northern bloodwood, western bloodwood or the inland bloodwood, is a species of small to medium-sized tree, rarely a mallee that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to Australia. It has rough, tessellated bark on some or all of the trunk, sometimes also on the larger branches, smooth white to cream-coloured bark above, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, white flowers and urn-shaped fruit.

Description

''Corymbia terminalis'' is a tree that typically grows to a height of , rarely a mallee, and forms a

lignotuber A lignotuber is a woody swelling of the root crown possessed by some plants as a protection against destruction of the plant stem, such as by fire. Other woody plants may develop basal burls as a similar survival strategy, often as a response t ...

. It has rough, tessellated light brown to light grey bark on part or all of trunk, sometimes extending to the larger branches. Young plants and

coppice Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which exploits the capacity of many species of trees to put out new shoots from their stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, which is called a copse, young tree stems are repeated ...

regrowth have egg-shaped to elliptical or lance-shaped leaves that are long, wide, tapering to a petiole and arranged in opposite pairs. Adult leaves are arranged alternately, the same shade of grey-green on both sides, lance-shaped, long and wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged on the ends of branchlets on a branched peduncle long, each branch of the peduncle with seven buds on

pedicels In botany, a pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence. Such inflorescences are described as ''pedicellate''. Description Pedicel refers to a structure connecting a single flower to its inflorescence. In the absenc ...

long. Mature buds are scurfy, oval to pear-shaped, greenish to brown or cream-coloured, long, wide with a conical, rounded or flattened operculum. Flowering occurs between March and October and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody urn-shaped capsule long and wide on a pedicel long and with the valves enclosed in the fruit. The seeds are light brown or reddish brown, long with a wing on the end.

Taxonomy and naming

Tjuta was first formally described in 1859 by

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

and given the name ''Eucalyptus terminalis''. The description was published in the '' Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Botany'' from samples collected from

Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compan ...

in the Northern Territory in 1856. In 1995, Ken Hill and

Lawrie Johnson Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, FAA, (26 June 1925 – 1 August 1997) known as Lawrie Johnson, was an Australian Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic botany, botanist. He worked at the Royal Botanic Garden ...

changed the name to ''Corymbia terminalis'', publishing the change in the journal '' Telopea''. In the same paper, Hill and John described ''C. terminalis'', '' C. opaca'' and ''C. tumescens'' as distinct species with intergrades between them. The

Australian Plant Census The Australian Plant Census (APC) provides an online interface to currently accepted, published, scientific names of the vascular flora of Australia, as one of the output interfaces of the national government Integrated Biodiversity Information Syst ...

regards ''C. tumescens'' as a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

but it is considered by the

National Herbarium of New South Wales The National Herbarium of New South Wales was established in 1853. The Herbarium has a collection of more than 1.4 million plant specimens, making it the second largest collection of pressed, dried plant specimens in Australia,Thiers, B. ...

to be distinct.Philip Moore 2005 “A Guide to Plants of Inland Australia” Reed New Holland The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

is derived from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word ''terminalis'' meaning ''terminal'' in reference to the placement of the inflorescences on the branchlets outside the crown.

Distribution and habitat

This eucalypt occurs in arid and seasonally dry areas of the Northern Territory, Queensland, the north-west of New South Wales and the extreme north of South Australia. ''Corymbia opaca'', sometimes included in ''C. terminalis'', is found in the northern half of Western Australia.Boland, D.J., Brooker, M.I.H., Chippendale, G.M., Hall, N., Hyland, B.P.M., Johnston, R.D., Kleinig, D.A., McDonald, M.W. & Turner J.D. 1999 "Forest Trees of Australia" CSIRO Publishing The tree typically grows on river flats, scree slopes and dune swales. It prefers well drained soils and is both

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

and frost tolerant.

Ecology

The flowers of ''Corymbia terminalis'' produce drops of nectar which provide a high energy food source for many desert animals including honeyeaters, insects and possums. It is also host to an unusual female insect called a

coccid Scale insects are small insects of the order Hemiptera, suborder Sternorrhyncha. Of dramatically variable appearance and extreme sexual dimorphism, they comprise the infraorder Coccomorpha which is considered a more convenient grouping than the ...

. Once the coccid burrows into the bark it forms a

gall Galls (from the Latin , 'oak-apple') or ''cecidia'' (from the Greek , anything gushing out) are a kind of swelling growth on the external tissues of plants, fungi, or animals. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues, similar to be ...

which it never leaves. Hidden away it sucks sap from the trees veins. The gall that grows on the tree is called the coconut. It must be broken open; the insect on the inside can be eaten, and contains a lot of moisture and a disinfectant.

Indigenous uses

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

s used the tree for traditional medicine. The

exudate An exudate is a fluid emitted by an organism through pores or a wound, a process known as exuding or exudation. ''Exudate'' is derived from ''exude'' 'to ooze' from Latin ''exsūdāre'' 'to (ooze out) sweat' (''ex-'' 'out' and ''sūdāre'' 'to ...

from the trunk or branches was diluted and used as an antiseptic treatment of facial cuts and sores. Larger leaves were useful for staunching wounds. The red bark

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can be stripped from the tree and mixed in water, then consumed for

diarrhoea Diarrhea, also spelled diarrhoea, is the condition of having at least three loose, liquid, or watery bowel movements each day. It often lasts for a few days and can result in dehydration due to fluid loss. Signs of dehydration often begin wi ...

as well as for indigestion and chest pain. The wood from the tree was used by indigenous peoples to make spear-throwers, digging bowls and carrying vessels. Europeans used the wood to make fence-posts, joists slabs and buildings as well as using it for firewood.

References