''Eucalyptus exserta'', commonly known as Queensland peppermint, peppermint, bendo, yellow messmate or messmate, is a species of tree or a mallee and 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 ...

to eastern Australia. It has hard, fibrous bark, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, white flowers and hemispherical or cup-shaped fruit.

Description

''Eucalyptus exserta'' can grow as a mallee to a height of or as a tree 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 hard, rough, fissured, fibrous grey bark, usually from the base to the small branches. The slightly glossy to dull usually green adult leaves are arranged alternately, narrow lance-shaped to lance-shaped, long and wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils in groups of seven on an unbranched peduncle long, the individual buds 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. Mature buds are oval, long and wide with a conical operculum. Flowering has been recorded in January, May and December and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody, hemispherical or cup-shaped capsule long and wide with a raised disc and exserted valves.

Taxonomy and naming

''Eucalyptus exserta'' was first formally described in 1859 by the Victorian state botanist Ferdinand von Mueller in the '' Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Botany''. The species name is from the

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 ''exsertus'' meaning ''exserted'', referring to the valves of the fruit.

Distribution and habitat

The species is found on stony rises and hills throughout much of central, southern and eastern Queensland, from around

Charleville Charleville can refer to: Australia * Charleville, Queensland, a town in Australia **Charleville railway station, Queensland France * Charleville, Marne, a commune in Marne, France *Charleville-Mézières, a commune in Ardennes, France ** ...

area east to the coast and then extending north to

Mareeba Mareeba is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Mareeba in Far North Queensland, Australia. Between 2008 and 2013, it was within the Tablelands Region. The town's name is derived from an Aboriginal word meaning ''meeting of the waters'' ...

. It is also found in a small area of northern New South Wales in the Bebo State Forest. ''E. exserta'' grows in infertile sandy soils as part of dry

sclerophyll Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or oblique to direct ...

woodland communities.

Ecology

It is a host tree for the mistletoe species ''

Amyema miquelii ''Amyema miquelii'', also known as box mistletoe, is a species of flowering plant, an epiphytic hemiparasitic plant of the family Loranthaceae, found attached to several species of Australian eucalypt and occasionally on some species of Acacia. ...

'', ''

Dendrophthoe glabrescens ''Dendrophthoe glabrescens'', commonly known as orange mistletoe, is a hemiparasitic plant of the mistletoe family Loranthaceae, found in eastern and northern Australia. It flowers from October to January. The flowers are tubular, with a gree ...

'' and '' Dendrophthoe homoplastica''. The leaves of the tree are a food source for

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 w ...

Cultivation and uses

''E. exserta'' is a profuse flowerer and is of some importance as food for honeybees. It can be grown as a shade or windbreak tree on farms in areas where it is native, growing best on soils with good drainage. ''E. exserta'' plantations were established in Guangdong Province in China to halt soil erosion in the early 1960s.

References