''Eucalyptus neutra'', commonly known as the Newdegate mallee, is a species of mallee that is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It has greyish bark, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds usually in groups of seven, pale yellow to white flowers and barrel-shaped to shortened spherical fruit.

Description

''Eucalyptus neutra'' is a mallee that typically grows to a height of and forms a lignotuber. The bark is smooth cream-coloured to tan and peels in short strips to reveal salmon pink to copper-coloured new bark. Young plants and coppice regrowth have egg-shaped to lance-shaped leaves that are long and wide and

glaucous ''Glaucous'' (, ) is used to describe the pale grey or bluish-green appearance of the surfaces of some plants, as well as in the names of birds, such as the glaucous gull (''Larus hyperboreus''), glaucous-winged gull (''Larus glaucescens''), g ...

. Adult leaves are arranged alternately, lance-shaped, the same shade of dull blish green on both sides, long and wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged 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, usually in groups of seven, on an unbranched

peduncle Peduncle may refer to: *Peduncle (botany), a stalk supporting an inflorescence, which is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed *Peduncle (anatomy), a stem, through which a mass of tissue is attached to a body **Peduncle (art ...

long, the individual buds on pedicels long. Mature buds are glaucous, oval, long and wide with a beaked to horn-shaped operculum. Flowering occurs on November and February and the flowers are pale yellow to white. The fruit is a woody, barrel-shaped to shortened spherical capsule long and wide with the valves protruding strongly above the rim.

Taxonomy and naming

''Eucalyptus neutra'' was first formally described in 1999 by

Dean Nicolle image:Dean-Nicolle-Deanei.JPG, 270px, Dean Nicolle and ''Eucalyptus deanei'' Dean Nicolle (born 1974), is an Australian botanist, arboriculture, arborist and ecologist. He is widely recognised as the leading authority on the genus ''Eucalyptus''. ...

in '' Australian Systematic Botany'' from specimens collected by Ian Brooker about east of Newdegate. 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 ...

(''neutra'') is a Latin word meaning "middle", referring to this species being in an intermediate position between '' E. flocktoniae'' and ''E.'' aff. ''transcontinentalis''.

Distribution and habitat

Newdegate mallee is found on plains and hillsides, between ridges and on road verges from near

Lake King Lake King is a town in the eastern Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, from Perth along State Route 40 between Kelmscott and Ravensthorpe. As of 2016, the town had a population of 95. The 2011 census recorded both the population of the tow ...

towards Corrigin and Jerramungup the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie, Esperance Plains 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 ...

of Western Australia where it grows in gravelly sandy-clay-loam soils.

Conservation status

This eucalypt is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government

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 en ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15353455 Eucalypts of Western Australia

neutra Neutra is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Richard Neutra (1892–1970), Austrian-American architect * Dion Neutra (1926–2019), American architect See also * Neutra, the German name for Nitra Nitra (; also known by ot ...

Myrtales of Australia Plants described in 1999 Mallees (habit)