''Eucalyptus creta'', commonly known as the large-fruited gimlet,
is a species of
mallet
A mallet is a tool used for imparting force on another object, often made of rubber or sometimes wood, that is smaller than a maul or beetle, and usually has a relatively large head. The term is descriptive of the overall size and proport ...
or tree 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
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, shiny bark, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of three in leaf
axil
A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, st ...
s, relatively large white to creamy yellow flowers, and broadly hemispherical to bell-shaped fruit.
Description
''Eucalyptus creta'' is a mallet or tree that typically grows to a height of but does not form a
lignotuber. It has smooth, shiny, yellowish, greenish or brownish to copper-coloured bark. Adult leaves are narrow lance-shaped, the same glossy green on both sides, long and wide on a
petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in groups of three in leaf axils on a
peduncle long, the individual buds
sessile
Sessility, or sessile, may refer to:
* Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about
* Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant
* Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...
. Mature buds are oval, long and wide with a wing on two sides of 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 a beaked
operculum. Flowering occurs in May and the flowers are white to creamy yellow. The fruit is a woody, hemispherical to shallow cup-shaped
capsule with two wings along the sides and the valves at the same level as the rim or extended beyond it.
Taxonomy and naming
''Eucalyptus creta'' was first formally described in 1991 by
Lawrie Johnson and
Ken Hill from a specimen collected north of Mount Ney, north-east of
Esperance.
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 ...
(''creta'') 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 "grow" or "increase",
"referring to the buds, flowers and fruit".
Distribution and habitat
Large-fruited gimlet is locally common in a restricted area north-east of Esperance in the
Esperance Plains
Esperance Plains, also known as Eyre Botanical District, is a biogeographic region in southern Western Australia on the south coast between the Avon Wheatbelt and Hampton bioregions, and bordered to the north by the Mallee region. It is a pl ...
and
Mallee biogeographic regions
A biogeographic realm or ecozone is the broadest biogeographic division of Earth's land surface, based on distributional patterns of terrestrial organisms. They are subdivided into bioregions, which are further subdivided into ecoregions.
De ...
, where it grows on calcareous plains in sandy loam or clay with little understorey vegetation.
Conservation status
This eucalypt is classified as "
Priority Three" by the Government of Western Australia
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 ...
meaning that it is poorly known and known from only a few locations but is not under imminent threat.
See also
*
List of ''Eucalyptus'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15395980
creta
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...
Endemic flora of Western Australia
Mallees (habit)
Myrtales of Australia
Eucalypts of Western Australia
Trees of Australia
Goldfields-Esperance
Endangered flora of Australia
Taxa named by Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson
Taxa named by Ken Hill (botanist)