Eucalypt is a descriptive name for woody plants with capsule fruiting bodies belonging to seven closely related genera (of the tribe

Eucalypteae Eucalypteae is a large tribe of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae; members of this tribe are known as eucalypts. In Australia the genera ''Angophora'', ''Corymbia'', and ''Eucalyptus'' are commonly known as gum trees, for the sticky substa ...

) found across Australasia: ''

Eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...

'', '' Corymbia'', '' Angophora'', ''

Stockwellia ''Stockwellia'' is a monotypic genus in the flowering plant family Myrtaceae. The sole species in the genus, ''Stockwellia quadrifida'' (commonly known as Vic Stockwell's puzzle), is endemic to Queensland. Description ''Stockwellia quadrifida ...

'', ''

Allosyncarpia ''Allosyncarpia ternata'', commonly known as ''an-binik'', is a species of rainforest trees constituting part of the botanical family Myrtaceae and included in the eucalypts group. The only species in its genus, it was described in 1981 by St ...

'', ''

Eucalyptopsis ''Eucalyptopsis'' is a genus of describing two species of trees, constituting part of the plant family Myrtaceae and included in the eucalypts group. They have botanical records of growing naturally in New Guinea and the Moluccas, within the Male ...

'' and ''

Arillastrum ''Arillastrum'' is a monotypic genus of trees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, containing the single species ''Arillastrum gummiferum''. It is endemic to southern New Caledonia.Wilcox, M. (2004)''Le chêne gomme'' (''Arillastrum gummiferum'') & ...

''.

Taxonomy

For an example of changing historical perspectives, in 1991, largely genetic evidence indicated that some prominent ''Eucalyptus'' species were actually more closely related to ''Angophora'' than to other eucalypts; they were accordingly split off into the new genus ''Corymbia''. Although separate, all of these genera and their species are allied and it remains the standard to refer to the members of all seven genera ''Angophora'', ''Corymbia'', ''Eucalyptus'', ''Stockwellia'', ''Allosyncarpia'', ''Eucalyptopsis'' and ''Arillastrum'' as "eucalypts" or as the eucalypt group. The extant genera ''Stockwellia'', ''Allosyncarpia'', ''Eucalyptopsis'' and ''Arillastrum'' comprise six known species, restricted to monsoon forests and rainforests in north-eastern Australia, the

Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compan ...

plateau,

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

, the

Moluccas The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located eas ...

and

New Caledonia ) , anthem = "" , image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of New Caledonia , map_caption = Location of New Caledonia , mapsize = 290px , subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...

. These genera are recognised as having evolved from ancient lineages of the family Myrtaceae. According to genetic, fossil and morphological evidence, it is hypothesised that they evolved into separate taxa before the evolution of the more widespread and well-known genera ''Eucalyptus'', ''Corymbia'' and ''Angophora'', and all of their many species. ''

Eucalyptus deglupta ''Eucalyptus deglupta'' is a species of tall tree, commonly known as the rainbow eucalyptus, Mindanao gum, or rainbow gum that is native to the Philippines, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. It is the only ''Eucalyptus'' species that usually liv ...

'' has naturally spread the furthest from the Australian geographic origin of the genus ''Eucalyptus'', being the only species known growing naturally in the nearby northern hemisphere, from New Guinea to

New Britain New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the Dam ...

Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...

Seram Island Seram (formerly spelled Ceram; also Seran or Serang) is the largest and main island of Maluku province of Indonesia, despite Ambon Island's historical importance. It is located just north of the smaller Ambon Island and a few other adjacent is ...

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) ( Jawi: مينداناو) is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. ''

Eucalyptus urophylla ''Eucalyptus urophylla'', commonly known as Timor white gum, Timor mountain gum, popo or ampupu, is a species of eucalypt native to islands of the Indonesian Archipelago and Timor. It is also common in other countries with humid and subhumid tr ...

'' also grows naturally as far west as the

Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Including the Komodo Islands off its west coast (but excluding the Solor Archipelago to the east of Flores), the land area is 15,530.58 km2, and th ...

and

Timor Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is East Timor–Indonesia border, divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western p ...

islands.

Adaptations

CSIRO ScienceImage 10646 Eucalypt regrowth after Black Saturday bushfires

Eucalypts from fire-prone habitats are attuned to withstand fire in several ways: * Their seeds are often held in an insulated capsule, which opens only in response to and after the devastation of a

bushfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...

. Once cooled down, the land becomes a freshly fertilised seed bed. * Oils in the leaves tend to make the fire more severe and therefore more damaging to less attuned species, giving an evolutionary advantage to the eucalypts.

Epicormic buds An epicormic shoot is a shoot growing from an epicormic bud, which lies underneath the bark of a trunk, stem, or branch of a plant. Epicormic buds lie dormant beneath the bark, their growth suppressed by hormones from active shoots higher up ...

under the often thick bark of the trunk and

branch A branch, sometimes called a ramus in botany, is a woody structural member connected to the central trunk (botany), trunk of a tree (or sometimes a shrub). Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. The term '' ...

es are ready to sprout new

stem Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...

s and

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

after a fire. These advantages work well in areas affected by long dry spells. Over 700 eucalypt species dominate landscapes all over Australia, but diversity is reduced in rainforests and arid environments.

References

External links

Plant Guide: Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora
at

Australian Native Plants Society The Australian Native Plants Society (Australia) (ANPSA) is a federation of seven state-based member organisations for people interested in Australia's native Flora of Australia, flora, both in aspects of conservation and in cultivation. A nati ...

Eucalypt Research
at

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{{Commons category, Eucalyptus Eucalypt Myrtaceae Plant common names

Taxonomy

Adaptations

See also

References

External links