''Eucalyptus coolabah'', commonly known as coolibah or coolabah, is a species of tree found in eastern inland

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. It has rough bark on part or all of the trunk, smooth powdery cream to pink bark above, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven and hemispherical or conical fruit. Eucalyptus coolabah flowers and foliage

Description

''Eucalyptus coolabah'' is a tree that typically grows to a height of and has hard, fibrous to flaky grey bark with whitish patches on part or all of the trunk and sometimes on the larger branches. The upper bark is smooth and powdery, white to cream-coloured, pale grey or pink and is shed in short ribbons. Young plants and coppice regrowth usually have stems that are more or less square in cross-section, and dull bluish, lance-shaped leaves long and wide. Adult leaves are the same dull green to bluish or greyish on both sides, Lance-shaped to curved, long and wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged on a branching

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are forme ...

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, ste ...

s with groups of seven buds on each branch. Each branch has a flattened to angular peduncle long, each bud on a cylindrical pedicel long. Mature buds are oval, often glaucous, long and wide with a conical operculum. Flowering has been recorded in most months and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody conical or hemispherical capsule long and wide on a pedicel long with the valves protruding beyond the rim. ''Eucalyptus coolabah'' is very similar to '' E. microtheca'' which has rough bark to the smallest branches, and to '' E. victrix'' which has smooth bark throughout.

Taxonomy and naming

''Eucalyptus coolabah'' was first formally described in 1934 by

William Blakely William Faris Blakely (November 1875 – 1 September 1941) was an Australian botanist and collector. From 1913 to 1940 he worked in the National Herbarium of New South Wales, working with Joseph Maiden on '' Eucalyptus'', Maiden named a ''red ...

and Maxwell Jacobs and the description was published in Blakely's book, ''A Key to the Eucalypts''. The specific epithet (''coolabah'') and the common name is a

loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because ...

from the

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

Yuwaaliyaay word, ''gulabaa''.

Distribution and habitat

Coolibah is found in western

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, central

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest o ...

, the Kimberley region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to t ...

, western

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

and southern to central parts of the Northern Territory. The tree occurs on occasionally flooded heavy-soiled plains and banks of intermittent streams and creeks that will usually not flow often enough to support the river red gum, '' E. camaldulensis''.

Uses

The wood typically has a

density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the substance's mass per unit of volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' can also be used. Mathematicall ...

of . The heartwood is a reddish brown colour and much darker than the sapwood.

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

used the wood to make spears, fire-making apparatus, message sticks, coolamons (wooden dishes) and throwing sticks. They would also obtain water from the rootwood.

References

* Holliday, I. ''A field guide to Australian trees (3rd edition)'', Reed New Holland, 2002 * Cronin, L. ''Key Guide to Australian Trees'', Envirobook, 2000

External links