Corymbia intermedia flowers and foliage 2

''Corymbia intermedia'', commonly known as the pink bloodwood, is a species of medium to tall 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 north-eastern Australia. It has rough, tessellated bark on the trunk and branches, flower buds in groups of seven, white flowers and oval to barrel-shaped fruit.

Description

The pink bloodwood is tree that can reach in height with a spread. The bark is rough, tessellated, light brown to grey in colour and extends from the trunk to the branches. Young plants and coppice regrowth have lance-shaped, dark green leaves that are paler on the lower surface, long and wide and

petiolate Petiole may refer to: *Petiole (botany), the stalk of a leaf, attaching the blade to the stem *Petiole (insect anatomy) In entomology, petiole is the technical term for the narrow waist of some hymenopteran insects, especially ants, bees, a ...

. Adult leaves are arranged alternately, leathery, paler on the lower surface, lance-shaped, long and wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged on the ends of branchlets on a branched peduncle long, each branch of the peduncle with seven 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 pear-shaped to oval, long and wide with a conical to rounded or beaked operculum. Flowering occurs from December to March and the profuse perfumed white or cream flowers are up to in diameter. The fruit is an urn-shaped, oval or barrel-shaped capsule long and wide with a short neck and the valves enclosed in the fruit. The pink bloodwood resembles the red bloodwood, and the two species co-occur in central New South Wales. The latter species can be distinguished by its larger gumnuts and winged seeds.

Taxonomy

Richard Thomas Baker was the first to formally describe the pink bloodwood in 1901, naming it ''Eucalyptus intermedia'', and publishing the description in ''

Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales The Linnean Society of New South Wales promotes ''the Cultivation and Study of the Science of Natural History in all its Branches'' and was founded in Sydney, New South Wales ( Australia) in 1874 and incorporated in 1884. History The Society suc ...

''. The species name is derived 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 ...

adjective ''intermedius'' and is based on the intermediate nature of the oils between the red and yellow bloodwoods. In 1995, the genus ''Eucalyptus'' was split into three genera by Ken Hill and Lawrie Johnson, with ''E. intermedia'' transferred into ''

Corymbia ''Corymbia'', commonly known as bloodwoods, is a genus of about one hundred species of tree that, along with ''Eucalyptus'', '' Angophora'' and several smaller groups, are referred to as eucalypts. Until 1990, corymbias were included in the gen ...

''. Hill and Johnson classified ''Corymbia intermedia'' in its own series ''Intermediae'', A combined analysis of nuclear rDNA (ETS + ITS) and morphological characters published in 2009 found it to be closely related to '' C. trachyphloia'' and '' C. hendersonii''. ''C. intermedia'' and other species were placed in the large section ''Septentrionales'' within the subgenus ''Corymbia''. The common name comes from the gum veins in the wood.

Distribution and habitat

The species is found in New South Wales from

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

northwards into Queensland, as far as to Cape York — a total range of — and within of the eastern coastline. It thrives on loamy and sandy soils, and has been found on altitudes of up to , with annual rainfall of 750–2200 mm and predominantly summer rain. It grows in open forest, or occasionally lone trees grow in closed forest or on the margins of rainforests. It is associated with such species as carbeen ('' Corymbia tesselaris''), broad-leaved stringybark (''

Eucalyptus caliginosa ''Eucalyptus caliginosa'', commonly known as broad-leaved stringybark or New England stringybark, is a tree that is endemic to eastern Australia. It has stringy bark, lance-shaped or curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven or nine, ...

''), forest red gum ('' E. tereticornis''), narrow-leaved ironbark ('' E. crebra''), scribbly gum ('' E. racemosa''), grey gum ('' E. propinqua''), blackbutt ('' E. pilularis''), flooded gum ('' E. grandis''), red mahogany ('' E. resinifera''), and black sheoak (''

Allocasuarina littoralis ''Allocasuarina littoralis'', commonly known as black sheoak, black she-oak, or river black-oak, is an endemic medium-sized Australian tree (usually up to 8 metres, but sometimes to 15 metres - coarse shrub in exposed maritime areas). A. littoral ...

'') and red wattle ('' Acacia flavescens'') in coastal north Queensland.

Ecology

In Bungawalbin National Park in northern New South Wales, the squirrel glider( ''Petaurus norfolcensis'') has been observed biting and gouging into the bark to make a wound on the trunk of the pink bloodwood and then lick the sap out. The behaviour has also been recorded for the

yellow-bellied glider The yellow-bellied glider (''Petaurus australis''), also known as the fluffy glider, is an arboreal and nocturnal gliding possum that lives in native eucalypt forests in eastern Australia, from northern Queensland south to Victoria. Habitat ...

('' P. australis'') for this species. Study of the forest habitat of the sugar glider (''P. breviceps'') and mahogany glider ( ''P. gracilis'') found that the presence of pink bloodwood was corellated with the presence of the former and absence of the latter species. Study of the impact of perioding burning in forest in southeastern Queensland found no significant difference in trunk diameter of pink bloodwoods in unburnt forest compared with forests burnt every two or four years.

Uses

The dark pink to reddish-brown heartwood is hard and durable usable for building fences and bridges. The sawdust of pink bloodwood is an irritant to eyes and skin.
''Corymbia intermedia'' may be used as a rootstock, onto which the ornamental Corymbia ficifolia is grafted.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7188999 intermedia Myrtales of Australia Flora of Queensland Flora of New South Wales Plants described in 1901