''Eucalyptus agglomerata'', commonly known as blue-leaved stringybark, is a tree
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 eastern Australia. It has persistent, stringy bark, green or greyish leaves with a bluish sheen, flower buds in groups of eleven to fifteen, white to cream-coloured flowers and crowded, flattened hemispherical fruit.
Description
''Eucalyptus agglomerata'' is a tree that grows to a height of and has thick, fibrous, stringy bark, usually colored grey over reddish brown. The leaves of young trees are green and broadly lance-shaped to egg-shaped, glossy green, wavy and hairy. Adult leaves are
glabrous
Glabrousness (from the Latin ''glaber'' meaning "bald", "hairless", "shaved", "smooth") is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of ...
, lance-shaped to broadly lance-shaped, mostly long and wide. They are green to greyish green, a similar shade on both sides, more or less glossy with a bluish sheen. From a distance the leaves appear a bluish/green colour. The flower buds are arranged in groups of between eleven and fifteen on a flattened or angular
peduncle long but the individual buds lack a
pedicel
Pedicle or pedicel may refer to:
Human anatomy
*Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures
...
. The mature buds are oblong or spindle-shaped, long and about wide with a conical
operculum at least as long and wide as the
floral cup
In angiosperms, a hypanthium or floral cup is a structure where basal portions of the calyx, the corolla, and the stamens form a cup-shaped tube. It is sometimes called a floral tube, a term that is also used for corolla tube and calyx tube. It ...
. The flowers are white. Flowering mostly occurs between October and January and the fruit are crowded, flattened hemispherical, long and wide.
Taxonomy and naming
''Eucalyptus agglomerata'' was first formally described in 1922 by
Joseph Maiden
Joseph Henry Maiden (25 April 1859 – 16 November 1925) was a botanist who made a major contribution to knowledge of the Australian flora, especially the genus ''Eucalyptus''. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation when citing ...
and the description was published in ''
Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales''. The
type specimen
In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...
was collected in 1896 by Maiden from
Hill Top in the
Southern Highlands district of
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
.
[Forest Trees of Australia, D.J. Boland et al. 1992 page 282] 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 ...
(''agglomerata'') is a
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 ...
adjective meaning "balled" or "gathered into a mass",
referring to the crowded fruit.
[
]
Distribution and habitat
Blue-leaved stringybark is often found on gentle to moderate slopes in the coastal and tableland areas, but it also grows on steep slopes in the Blue Mountains. The soils show a range of types, some of poor quality but mostly of good levels of sub soil moisture. Podosolic soils give best results. The soil types for ''E. agglomerata'' are mostly sedimentary, based on shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...
s and sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
s, but sometimes slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
s. The climate for this species is mostly warm humid with rainfall ranges between 700 mm to 1500 mm per year. Frosts are common in the higher altitudes of its range, but absent on the lower coastal habitats. The average high temperature of the warmest month is between 25 and 31 degrees Celsius. The minimum temperature range of the coolest month is from -2 to 6 degrees Celsius. Blue-leaved stringybark is found within 120 kilometres of the sea.
It occurs in areas of eastern central and southern New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
, and is distributed as far north as Wauchope, to just south of the Victorian border into Croajingolong National Park
The Croajingolong National Park is a coastal national park located in the East Gippsland region of the Australian state of Victoria. The national park is situated approximately east of Melbourne and south of Sydney.
The name ''Croajingolon ...
.
Ecology
Blue-leaved stringybark is a koala
The koala or, inaccurately, koala bear (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae and its closest living relatives are the womb ...
food tree. A field study conducted in the Campbelltown district southwest of Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
published in 2000 found that koalas preferred Blue-leaved Stringybark and Grey Gum but only when the two tree species were growing on shale-based rather than sandstone soils.
Use in horticulture
It is not often seen in cultivation but has potential as a windbreak or shelter tree.[
]
Timber
The pale brown sapwood is resistant to lyctus
Lyctus or Lyttos (Greek: or ), was one of the most considerable cities in ancient Crete, which appears in the Homeric catalogue. Lyttos is now a village in the municipality of Minoa Pediada.
Lyctus in mythology
According to Hesiod, ''Theogony' ...
borer. The light brown heartwood is of a moderate fine texture with some interlocking grain. The weight is 930 kilograms per cubic metre. It is slow drying and is used for general building construction and fencing.
References
* A Field Guide to Eucalypts - Brooker & Kleinig volume 1, page 67
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5405513
agglomerata
Myrtales of Australia
Flora of New South Wales
Flora of Victoria (Australia)
Trees of Australia
Plants described in 1922
Taxa named by Joseph Maiden