''Eucalyptus tricarpa'', commonly known as red ironbark or mugga ironbark, is a species of tree 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 south-eastern Australia. It has thick, rough

ironbark Ironbark is a common name of a number of species in three taxonomic groups within the genus ''Eucalyptus'' that have dark, deeply furrowed bark. Instead of being shed annually as in many of the other species of ''Eucalyptus'', the dead bark accu ...

on the trunk and branches, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds usually in groups of three, white flowers and cylindrical or spherical fruit.

Description

''Eucalyptus tricarpa'' is a tree 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 thick rough, reddish brown to black ironbark 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 green to greyish, elliptical to lance-shaped leaves that are long and wide and petiolate. Adult leaves are arranged alternately, the same shade of green to greyish green on both sides, lance-shaped to curved, 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 three, sometimes seven, on an unbranched peduncle 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 oval, long and wide with a conical to beaked operculum. Flowering occurs from February to November and the flowers are white or pale pink. The fruit is a woody cylindrical to shortened spherical capsule long and wide with the valves enclosed below the rim.

Taxonomy and naming

The red ironbark was first formally described in 1962 by

Lawrie Johnson Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, FAA, (26 June 1925 – 1 August 1997) known as Lawrie Johnson, was an Australian Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic botany, botanist. He worked at the Royal Botanic Garden ...

who gave it the name ''Eucalyptus sideroxylon'' subsp. ''tricarpa'' and published the description in ''Contributions from the New South Wales National Herbarium''. In 1991, Johnson and Ken Hill raised the subspecies to species level as ''E. tricarpa''. 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 ...

(''tricarpa'') is from

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

words meaning "three" and "fruit". In 2004,

Kevin James Rule Kevin James Rule was born at Daylesford, Victoria on 9 November 1941. He was a secondary school teacher and had a particular interest in the taxonomy of Australian eucalyptus. He discovered several new species in Victoria. He is an honorary asso ...

described two subspecies and the names are accepted by the

Australian Plant Census The Australian Plant Census (APC) provides an online interface to currently accepted, published, scientific names of the vascular flora of Australia, as one of the output interfaces of the national government Integrated Biodiversity Information Syst ...

: * ''Eucalyptus tricarpa'' subsp. ''decora'' Rule has

pruinose Pruinescence , or pruinosity, is a "frosted" or dusty-looking coating on top of a surface. It may also be called a pruina (plural: ''pruinae''), from the Latin word for hoarfrost. The adjectival form is pruinose . Entomology In insects, a "blo ...

seedlings, branchlets, and flower buds; * ''Eucalyptus tricarpa'' (L.A.S.Johnson) L.A.S.Johnson & K.D.Hill subsp. ''tricarpa'' has no parts that are pruinose.

Distribution and habitat

''Eucalyptus tricarpa'' grows in forest and woodland in coastal south from Araluen in New South Wales and is common in the goldfields near

Bendigo Bendigo ( ) is a city in Victoria, Australia, located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital. As of 2019, Bendigo had an urban population of 100,991, makin ...

, near Anglesea and in coastal and near-coastal areas of

Gippsland Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers ...

. Subspecies ''decora'' occurs in open woodland around St Arnaud in Victoria.

Gallery

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3020855 Flora of New South Wales Flora of Victoria (state) Trees of Australia tricarpa Myrtales of Australia Plants described in 1962

Description

Taxonomy and naming

Distribution and habitat

Gallery

See also

References