''Eucalyptus sporadica'', commonly known as the Burngup mallee,
is a species of
mallee that is
endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It has smooth bark, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, yellowish flowers and down-turned, conical to cylindrical fruit.
Description
''Eucalyptus sporadica'' is a mallee that typically grows to a height of and forms a
lignotuber. It has smooth, red-brown, grey, greenish grey or silvery white bark, occasionally with a short stocking of rough bark. Young plants and
coppice regrowth have light green to bluish green, egg-shaped to lance-shaped or elliptical leaves that are long, 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 the same shade of glossy green on both sides, lance-shaped or curved, long and wide on a petiole long. The flowers 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 a downcurved, flattened
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
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 an elongated, asymmetrical spindle shape, long and wide with a horn-shaped
operculum that is two or three times as long as the
floral cup
In angiosperms, a hypanthium or floral cup is a structure where basal portions of the calyx, the corolla, and the stamens form a cup-shaped tube. It is sometimes called a floral tube, a term that is also used for corolla tube and calyx tube. It ...
. Flowering occurs from March or June to October or December and the flowers are lemon to greenish yellow. The fruit is a woody, downturned, conical to cylindrical
capsule long and wide with the valves exserted.
Taxonomy and naming
''Eucalyptus sporadica'' was first formally described in 2002 by Ian Brooker and Stephen Hopper
Stephen Donald Hopper AC FLS FTSE (born 18 June 1951) is a Western Australian botanist. He graduated in Biology, specialising in conservation biology and vascular plants. Hopper has written eight books, and has over 200 publications to his n ...
in the journal '' Nuytsia'' from specimens collected by Brooker near Burngup, south-east of Pingaring
Pingaring is a small town in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia.
The name of the town is the Indigenous Australian name of a nearby spring that was first recorded by surveyors in 1926.
The town originated as a railway siding on the Hy ...
in 1984.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 ...
(''sporadica'') is from the Latin word ''sporadicus'' meaning "sporadic", referring to the widespread but scattered distribution of the species.
Distribution and habitat
Burngup mallee grows on sand, loam, clay soils and gravel and is found on granite outcrops, lateritic hills and breakaways.[ It is found between Peak Charles, ]Tarin Rock
Tarin Rock () is a locality, railway siding and rock formation on the Wagin to Lake Grace branch line, located approximately 18 km east of Kukerin in Western Australia.
The surrounding areas produce wheat and other cereal crops. The prim ...
and the Fitzgerald River National Park in the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie, Esperance Plains, Mallee and Murchison 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 mallee 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=Q15356115
Eucalypts of Western Australia
Endemic flora of Western Australia
sporadica
Myrtales of Australia
Plants described in 2002
Taxa named by Ian Brooker
Taxa named by Stephen Hopper