''Eucalyptus capillosa'', commonly known as wheatbelt wandoo, or mallee wandoo, is a species of tree or 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 else ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. It has smooth, grey bark, lance-shaped to elliptic adult leaves, spindle-shaped flower buds in groups of nine to thirteen, white flowers and barrel-shaped to cylindrical fruit. Eucalyptus capillosa subsp

Description

''Eucalyptus capillosa'' is a tree or mallee that typically grows to a height of 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 smooth, sometimes powdery grey bark with pink or pale orange patches. The leaves on young plants are lance-shaped, glaucous, long and wide. Adult leaves are the same dull green on both sides, linear to elliptic, long and wide on a petiole long. The flowers buds are arranged in leaf axils in groups of nine, eleven or thirteen on a peduncle long, the individual flowers 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. The mature buds are spindle-shaped, long and wide with a conical operculum about twice as long 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 ...

and the same width at the join. The flowering period is from December to May and the flowers are white. The fruit is a conical to barrel-shaped capsule long and wide with the valves usually level with the rim. ''Eucalyptus capillosa'' is a closely related and very similar to '' E. wandoo'' but differs in having hairy seedlings with more leaves arranged in opposite pairs, and adult leaves that are green rather than blue-green or glaucous.

Taxonomy and naming

''Eucalyptus capillosa'' was first formally described by the botanists

Ian Brooker Murray Ian Hill Brooker AM (2 June 1934 – 25 June 2016), better known as Ian Brooker, was an Australian botanist. He was widely recognised as the leading authority on the genus ''Eucalyptus''. Ian Brooker was born in Adelaide, South Australi ...

and Stephen Hopper in 1991 from a specimen near Merredin and the description was published in the journal ''

Nuytsia ''Nuytsia floribunda'' is a hemiparasitic tree found in Western Australia. The species is known locally as moodjar and, more recently, the Christmas tree or Western Australian Christmas tree. The display of intensely bright flowers during the ...

''. The specific epithet (''capillosa'') 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 ...

word meaning "hairy", referring to the hairy seedlings. Brooker and Hopper described two subspecies that have been accepted by 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 ...

: * ''Eucalyptus capillosa'' subsp. ''capillosa'' is a small to medium-sized tree; * ''Eucalyptus capillosa'' subsp. ''polyclada'' is a mallee to . The name ''polyclada'' is derived from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

words ''polys'' meaning "many" and ''klados'' meaning "branch", "twig" or "stem", referring to the mallee habit of this subspecies.

Distribution and habitat

Wheatbelt wandoo (subspecies ''capillosa'') is found in the central and eastern wheatbelt where it grows in low, open heath, mainly east of Pithara,

Kellerberrin, Western Australia Kellerberrin is a town in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, east of Perth on the Great Eastern Highway. The town serves as a stop on the '' Prospector'' and ''MerredinLink'' rural train services. It is also located on the Golden Pipe ...

and Corrigin. Mallee wandoo (subspecies ''polyclada'') grows on gravelly slopes in tall mallee in the central wheatbelt from Pithara to near Hyden and

Lake Grace A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

. ''Eucalyptus capillosa'' often forms open woodlands with a diverse understorey. Other species found in the upper storey include '' E. salmonophloia'' and occasionally '' E. salubris'', ''E. loxophleba'' subsp. ''loxophleba'' and '' E. transcontinentalis''.

Conservation status

This eucalypt is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and e ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15395946 Eucalypts of Western Australia Trees of Australia capillosa Myrtales of Australia Plants described in 1991 Taxa named by Ian Brooker Taxa named by Stephen Hopper Endemic flora of Southwest Australia

Description

Taxonomy and naming

Distribution and habitat

Conservation status

See also

References