''Eucalyptus melanoxylon'', commonly known as black morrell, is a species of small to medium-sized 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 ...

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 th ...

. It has hard, fissured bark on some or all of its trunk, linear to narrow lance-shaped leaves, flower buds in groups of between seven and fifteen, white flowers and conical to cup-shaped fruit.

Description

''Eucalyptus melanoxylon'' is a tree that typically grows to a height of , sometimes a robust mallee, 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 hard, thick, fissured bark on the trunk and larger branches or sometimes only on the lower half, and white to greyish bark above. 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 dull greenish leaves that are lance-shaped, long and wide. Adult leaves are the same glossy green on both surfaces, linear to narrow lance-shaped, long and wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in groups of between seven and fifteen 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 rounded operculum. Flowering occurs between November and March and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody conical to cup-shaped capsule long and wide with the valves protruding.

Taxonomy

''Eucalyptus melanoxylon'' was first formally described in 1923 by

Joseph Maiden Joseph Henry Maiden (25 April 1859 – 16 November 1925) was a botanist who made a major contribution to knowledge of the Australian flora, especially the genus ''Eucalyptus''. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation when citing ...

in his book, ''A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus'' from specimens collected near Westonia. 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 ...

(''melanoxylon'') means "black wood", alluding to the very dark colour of the timber.

Distribution and habitat

Black morrell occurs in southern Western Australia from Westonia, Bullabulling and

Lake King Lake King is a town in the eastern Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, from Perth along State Route 40 between Kelmscott and Ravensthorpe. As of 2016, the town had a population of 95. The 2011 census recorded both the population of the tow ...

in the eastern wheatbelt to Balladonia in the eastern

goldfields Goldfield or Goldfields may refer to: Places * Goldfield, Arizona, the former name of Youngberg, Arizona, a populated place in the United States * Goldfield, Colorado, a community in the United States * Goldfield, Iowa, a city in the United State ...

. It is found in depressions and on flats where it grows in sand-clay-loamy soils.

Conservation status

This eucalypt is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and e ...

Uses

The

heartwood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin tha ...

of this species is a dark brown colour with visible growth rings. The wood is quite dense, with an air-dry density of and a green density of . It is quite workable and is suitable for woodturning, sanding and finishing.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15396625 Eucalypts of Western Australia Trees of Australia

melanoxylon ''Melanoxylum'' is the genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of bio ...