''Eucalyptus largiflorens'', or black box
or river box,
[ ] is a 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
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, fibrous or flaky bark, dull greenish-grey, lance-shaped leaves, oval to club-shaped green to yellow flower buds, white flowers and hemispherical, cup-shaped or barrel-shaped fruit.
Description
''Eucalyptus largiflorens'' is a tree that grows to a height of with rough bark to the thinnest branches. The bark is dark grey and fibrous or flaky, sometimes furrowed on the trunk. The leaves on young trees are dull greyish green to bluish, linear to narrow lance-shaped, long and wide. Adult leaves are lance-shaped, the same shade of green on both sides, long and wide. The flowers are arranged in groups of mostly between seven and eleven on the ends of the branches or 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 on a cylindrical
peduncle long, individual flowers on a cylindrical
pedicel long. The mature buds are green to yellow, oval to club-shaped, long and wide. The
operculum is hemispherical to cone-shaped, shorter and narrower than the
flower cup. The
stamen
The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10
Morphology and terminology
A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the fila ...
s are white. Flowering occurs in most months but especially in autumn and spring. The fruit is a hemispherical to oval
capsule, long and wide.
Taxonomy
''Eucalyptus largiflorens'' was first formally described in 1855 by
Ferdinand von Mueller
Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...
and the description was published in ''Transactions and Prodeedings of the Victorian Institute for the Advancement of Science''.
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, bo ...
(''largiflorens'') is derived from the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
words ''largus'' meaning "abundant"
and ''florens'' meaning "blooming",
referring to the size of the
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 ...
.
Distribution
The black box is widespread in
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 ...
,
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 ...
,
Victoria and
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 ...
, especially in grassy woodland on the floodplains of the
Murray–Darling basin, but usually in dryer sites than river red gum (''
E. camaldulensis'').
Use by Indigenous Australians
The small seeds of the black box were eaten raw by
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 ...
when grass seeds were scarce. Fruiting branches were cut down and placed in the sun to induce the capsules to open. Once the seeds were extracted, they were soaked and treated with several changes of water to remove the bitterness. They were then dried, ground on a grinding stone, and eaten raw.
See also
*
List of ''Eucalyptus'' species
References
{{Authority control
Flora of New South Wales
Flora of Queensland
Flora of South Australia
Flora of Victoria (Australia)
Trees of Australia
largiflorens
Myrtales of Australia
Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller
Plants described in 1848