''Eucalyptus proxima'', commonly known as nodding mallee
or red-flowered mallee,
is a species of
mallee 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 a small area in the south-west of Western Australia. It has smooth greyish bark, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, red to pink, sometimes yellowish flowers and conical to slightly bell-shaped fruit.
Description
''Eucalyptus proxima'' is a mallee that typically grows to a height of and forms a
lignotuber. It has smooth grey bark that is shed to reveal pale orange or coppery new bark. Young plants and
coppice regrowth have egg-shaped to lance-shaped leaves that are long and wide. Adult leaves are the same shade of glossy green on both sides, lance-shaped, 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 on a slightly flattened, down-turned, 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 thick
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 rounded
operculum. Flowering occurs from September to November and the flowers are red to pink, sometimes yellowish. The fruit is a woody, conical to slightly bell-shaped
capsule, long and wide with the valves near rim level.
Taxonomy and naming
''Eucalyptus proxima'' was first formally described in 2005 by
Dean Nicolle
270px, Dean Nicolle and '' Eucalyptus deanei''
Dean Nicolle (born 1974), is an Australian botanist, arborist and ecologist. He is widely recognised as the leading authority on the genus ''Eucalyptus''.
Nicolle was born in Adelaide, South Austr ...
and
Ian Brooker from a specimen they collected near
Jerdacuttup in 2002.
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 ...
(''proxima'') is from the Latin word ''proximus'', meaning "nearest" or "most similar", referring to similarity of this species to ''
E. cernua''.
Distribution and habitat
Nodding mallee grows in
mallee shrubland between
Ravensthorpe Ravensthorpe may refer to any of the following places.
England
*Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury in West Yorkshire
**Ravensthorpe railway station, Dewsbury
*Ravensthorpe, Northamptonshire
*Ravensthorpe, Peterborough in Cambridgeshire
*Ravensthorpe, an histor ...
and
Hopetoun in the
Avon Wheatbelt,
Esperance Plains
Esperance Plains, also known as Eyre Botanical District, is a biogeographic region in southern Western Australia on the south coast between the Avon Wheatbelt and Hampton bioregions, and bordered to the north by the Mallee region. It is a pl ...
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 ...
.
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 e ...
.
See also
*
List of ''Eucalyptus'' species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15354783
proxima
Myrtales of Australia
Eucalypts of Western Australia
Plants described in 2012
Taxa named by Ian Brooker