''Eucalyptus notabilis'', commonly known as Blue Mountains mahogany or mountain mahogany, is a species of small to medium-sized tree

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 rough, fibrous bark on the trunk and branches, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of between seven and eleven, white flowers and hemispherical or conical fruit.

Description

''Eucalyptus notabilis'' is a tree, rarely a mallee, that typically grows to a height of 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 persistent, rough, stringy, grey to reddish brown bark on the trunk and branches. 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 dull green leaves that are paler on the lower surface, long and wide and petiolate. Adult leaves are lance-shaped to curved, glossy green on the upper surface, paler below, long and wide, tapering to 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 in groups of seven, nine or eleven 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

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 ...

up to long. Mature buds are oval to pear-shaped, long and wide with a conical to rounded or beaked operculum. Flowering has been recorded in October and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody hemispherical or conical capsule long and wide with the valves strongly protruding.

Taxonomy and naming

''Eucalyptus notabilis'' was first formally described in 1920 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 ...

in '' Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales'' from specimens collected at Glenbrook by Richard Cambage and Maiden. 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 ...

(''notabilis'') 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 "noteworthy", referring to the stature of some examples of this species. Maiden referred to it as "a handsome species".

Distribution and habitat

Blue Mountains mahogany grows at high altitude in dry forest and occurs in disjunct areas between the

Lamington Plateau The Lamington National Park is a national park, lying on the Lamington Plateau of the McPherson Range on the Queensland/New South Wales border in Australia. From Southport on the Gold Coast the park is to the southwest and Brisbane is north. T ...

in south-eastern Queensland, the

Gibraltar Range The Gibraltar Range is a mountain range in the Northern Tablelands region of New South Wales, Australia. The range extends off the Great Dividing Range at Bald Nob about east northeast of and trends generally east northeast and north northea ...

and the Blue Mountains.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5405643 notabilis Myrtales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Plants described in 1920 Taxa named by Joseph Maiden