''Eucalyptus pileata'', commonly known as the capped mallee, is a species of mallee that is native to South Australia and Western Australia. It has smooth greyish bark, narrow lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, white flowers and cup-shaped, conical or barrel-shaped fruit.

Description

''Eucalyptus pileata'' is a mallee, rarely a small tree, that typically grows to a height of and forms a lignotuber. It has smooth, greyish bark that is shed in long ribbons to reveal orange or yellow new bark. Young plants and coppice regrowth have egg-shaped, bluish green leaves that are long and wide. Adult leaves are narrow lance-shaped, the same shade of glossy green on both sides, 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 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 cylindrical to oval or pear-shaped, long and wide with a turban-shaped, ribbed operculum long and wide. Flowering occurs from February to May or from September to October and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody, cup-shaped, conical or barrel-shaped capsule long and wide.

Taxonomy and naming

''Eucalyptus pileata'' was first formally described in 1934 by William Blakely in his book ''A Key to Eucalypts'' from material collected near Ravensthorpe in 1909. 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 ...

(''pileata'') is from the Latin ''pileatus'' meaning "wearing a pileus", a kind of felt cap, referring to the cap-shaped operculum.

Distribution and habitat

Capped mallee grows in Western Australia and South Australia. It grows in

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It m ...

between Balladonia, Kondinin,

Norseman The Norsemen (or Norse people) were a North Germanic ethnolinguistic group of the Early Middle Ages, during which they spoke the Old Norse language. The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages and is the pre ...

, Nugadong and Ravensthorpe in Western Australia. In South Australia it occurs on the Eyre Peninsula, mainly between the

Hincks Conservation Park Hincks Conservation Park is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia on the Eyre Peninsula located about north of Port Lincoln and south east of Lock in the gazetted locality of Tooligie. The conservation park was proclai ...

and Cummins.

Conservation status

This eucalypt is classified as "not threatened" in Western Australia 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=Q7212998 Eucalypts of Western Australia pileata Myrtales of Australia Plants described in 1934 Taxa named by William Blakely

Description

Taxonomy and naming

Distribution and habitat

Conservation status

See also

References