''Eucalyptus ligustrina'', commonly known as the privet-leaved stringybark, is a species of shrub, mallee or small 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 else ...

to New South Wales. It has rough, stringy bark, lance-shaped to egg-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of between seven and fifteen, white flowers and hemispherical or shortened spherical fruit. Eucalyptus ligustrina buds

Description

''Eucalyptus ligustrina'' is a small tree, often a mallee or a shrub, that sometimes grows to but usually to less than , 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 ...

. The bark is rough, greyish brown and stringy on the trunk and larger branches, smooth on branches thinner than . 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 repeate ...

regrowth have egg-shaped leaves long and wide with a very short petiole. Adult leaves are the same, or a slightly different, shade of glossy green on both sides, lance-shaped to curved or egg-shaped, long and wide tapering to a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in groups of between seven and fifteen in leaf axils, on a 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 ...

. Mature buds are oval to club-shaped or spindle-shaped, long and wide with a conical to rounded operculum. Flowering has been recorded from April to May and from September to October and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody, hemispherical or shortened spherical capsule long and wide with the valves below rim level.A Field Guide to Eucalypts – Brooker & Kleinig volume 1, page 75

Taxonomy and naming

''Eucalyptus ligustrina'' was first formally described in 1828 by the Swiss botanist

Augustin Pyramus de Candolle Augustin Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (, , ; 4 February 17789 September 1841) was a Swiss botanist. René Louiche Desfontaines launched de Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at a herbarium. Within a couple of years de Candoll ...

in ''Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis''. The specific epithet (''ligustrina'') is a reference to the similarity of the leaves to those of plants in the genus ''

Ligustrum A privet is a flowering plant in the genus ''Ligustrum''. The genus contains about 50 species of erect, deciduous or evergreen shrubs, sometimes forming small or medium-sized trees, native to Europe, north Africa, Asia, many introduced and nat ...

''.

Disgribution and habitat

Privet-leaved stringybark occurs in New South Wales from the

Gibraltar Range National Park Gibraltar Range is a national park in north-eastern New South Wales, Australia, north-east of Glen Innes and north of Sydney. The Park is part of the Washpool and Gibraltar Range area of the World Heritage Site Gondwana Rainforests of Au ...

in the north to

Deua National Park Deua is a national park located in New South Wales, Australia, south of Sydney, and east of Canberra. The nearest towns on the coast are Batemans Bay, Moruya and Narooma. A remote wilderness area of escarpments and gullies, waterfalls, limesto ...

in the south. The principal area however, is in the Blue Mountains. The habitat is dry sclerophyll woodland or

heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...

, on poor soils derived from

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

or acidic

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q10971552 ligustrina Myrtales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Mallees (habit) Trees of Australia Plants described in 1828 Taxa named by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle