Eucalyptus cneorifolia - upper branch bark

''Eucalyptus cneorifolia'', the Kangaroo Island narrow-leaf mallee, is a native tree of

Kangaroo Island Kangaroo Island, also known as Karta Pintingga (literally 'Island of the Dead' in the language of the Kaurna people), is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, southwest ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

Description

The mallee tree will grow to in height, it has an upright habit and can have a single or multiple stems with 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 ...

at the base of the trunk. It mostly forms a dense canopy of thin dark green leaves that have conspicuous oil glands. The bark is fibrous, greyish-brown to dark-grey in colour with longitudinally fissured bark on the lower trunk and with smooth greyish bark above. Adult leaves have an alternate arrangement. The leaf blade is linear-

lanceolate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...

or linear-oblong shape with a length of and a width of . the leaves are glossy, olive-green, dull and grey-green when dried with indistinct veins. It flowers between December and April producing

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

s with small white flowers. The flowers occur in umbels of 4 to 14 found at the axils of the leaves. The buds are usually more or less ellipsoid in shape with a conical or hemispherical-conical bud-cap. The buds have a length of and a width of . The fruits that form are hemispherical or hemispherical-globose in shape. They have a length of to . The fruit disc is wide and flat or slightly raised with three or four needle-like exserted valves. Fruits contain brown ovoid shaped seeds with a slightly wrinkled surface that are and wide.

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

Augustin Pyramus de Candolle Augustin Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (, , ; 4 February 17789 September 1841) was a Swiss botanist. René Louiche Desfontaines launched de Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at a herbarium. Within a couple of years de Candol ...

in 1828 and published in ''

Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis ''Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis'' (1824–1873), also known by its standard botanical abbreviation ''Prodr. (DC.)'', is a 17-volume treatise on botany initiated by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle. De Candolle intended it as a summa ...

''. The species name ''cneorifolia'' is taken from the genus '' Cneorum'' and the Latin word 'folium' meaning a leaf, referring to the similarity of the leaves to those of the unrelated plant '' Cneorum tricoccum''.

Distribution

The Kangaroo Island narrow-leaf mallee was originally endemic to eastern Kangaroo Island and has no closely related species. It is also found around

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

and

Mount Lofty Range The Mount Lofty Ranges are a range of mountains in the Australian state of South Australia which for a small part of its length borders the east of Adelaide. The part of the range in the vicinity of Adelaide is called the Adelaide Hills and ...

s on the mainland but is vulnerable on the

Fleurieu Peninsula The Fleurieu Peninsula () is a peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia located south of the state capital of Adelaide. History Before British colonisation of South Australia, the western side of the peninsula was occupied by the K ...

. It grows well in well-drained soils over

laterite Laterite is both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

as part of a dense mallee shrubland community.

Cultivation

It is grown in plantations for the production of

cineole Eucalyptol is a monoterpenoid. A colorless liquid, it is a bicyclic ether. Eucalyptol has a fresh mint-like smell and a spicy, cooling taste. It is insoluble in water, but miscible with organic solvents. Eucalyptol makes up ~70% - 90% of eucal ...

based

eucalyptus oil Eucalyptus oil is the generic name for distilled oil from the leaf of ''Eucalyptus'', a genus of the plant family Myrtaceae native to Australia and cultivated worldwide. Eucalyptus oil has a history of wide application, as a pharmaceutical, ant ...

.Boland, D.J., Brophy, J.J., and A.P.N. House, ''Eucalyptus Leaf Oils'', 1991, On Kangaroo Island, there were over 100 stills for the production of eucalyptus oil from the narrow-leaf mallee, however, the distillation industry went into decline after the 1930s due to the greater profitability of sheep farming. Today there is currently only one operating distillery on the island.

Gallery

File:Eucalyptus cneorifolia - adult leaves.jpg, Adult leaves File:Eucalyptus cneorifolia - buds.jpg, Buds File:Eucalyptus cneorifolia - fruit.jpg, Fruit File:Eucalyptus cneorifolia - trunk bark.jpg, Trunk bark

References

External links

* Eucalyptus Oil Industry Revival, Landline, ABC

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5229729 Eucalyptus, cneorifolia Myrtales of Australia Crops originating from Australia Flora of Kangaroo Island Plants described in 1828