''Eucalyptus dwyeri'', commonly known as Dwyer's red gum or Dwyer's mallee gum,
is a species of small tree, sometimes 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 eastern Australia. It has smooth, white or cream-coloured bark, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven and conical, bell-shaped or hemispherical fruit.
Description
''Eucalyptus dwyeri'' is a tree that typically grows to a height of or a mallee to , 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 white to cream coloured or greyish brown bark that is shed in plates or flakes. 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 lance-shaped leaves that are long and wide. Adult leaves are lance-shaped to curved, long and wide on a
petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in groups of seven 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 on an unbranched
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 ...
or on 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
...
up to long. Mature buds are oval to diamond-shaped, long and wide with a conical
operculum. Flowering occurs from September to December and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody conical, bell-shaped or hemispherical
capsule long and wide with the valves at rim level or slightly beyond.
Taxonomy and naming
''Eucalyptus dwyeri'' was first described in 1925 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
William Blakely
William Faris Blakely (November 1875 – 1 September 1941) was an Australian botanist and collector. From 1913 to 1940 he worked in the National Herbarium of New South Wales, working with Joseph Maiden on ''Eucalyptus'', Maiden named a ''red g ...
from a specimen collected at
Gungal near
Merriwa by John Boorman and the description was published in ''
Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales''.
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 ...
(''dwyeri'') honours "James Wilfred Dwyer, Roman Catholic Bishop of
Wagga, N.S.W., who, when Parish Priest of
Temora, collected this species on several occasions, and who has been an acute observer of native plants for many years," although the priest's name was
Joseph Wilfrid Dwyer
Joseph Wilfrid Dwyer DD (1869-1939) was an Australian Catholic priest and Bishop of Wagga Wagga, New South Wales.
He was born on 12 October 1869, in East Maitland, New South Wales, to William Dwyer, school inspector, and his wife Anastasia Dermo ...
.
Distribution and habitat
Dwyer's red gum grows in
mallee shrubland in shallow soils on ridges west of the
Great Dividing Range
The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills, that runs rough ...
in New South Wales and southern Queensland. It has also been recorded from northern Victoria but the
Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria
Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria are botanical garden, botanic gardens across two sites–Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, Melbourne and Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne, Cranbourne.
Melbourne Gardens was founded in 1846 when land was rese ...
suggests that these records are better referred to ''
E. blakelyi''.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15397581
dwyeri
Myrtales of Australia
Flora of New South Wales
Flora of Queensland
Trees of Australia
Plants described in 1925
Taxa named by Joseph Maiden
Taxa named by William Blakely