''Eucalyptus rossii'', commonly known as inland scribbly gum or white gum, 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 ...

to New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. It has smooth bark with insect scribbles, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of between nine and fifteen, white flowers and hemispherical or shortened spherical fruit.

Description

''Eucalyptus rossii'' is a tree that typically grows to a height of around 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 normally has a solitary straight trunk and an open, moderately dense crown that reaches a width of about . The smooth yellowish bark sheds in patches throughout the year and usually has insect scribbles. 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 lance-shaped, narrow lance-shaped or curved leaves that are long and wide. Adult leaves are arranged alternately, the same shade of green on both sides, narrow lance-shaped to lance-shaped, long and wide, tapering to a petiole long. The flower buds are mostly arranged 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, st ...

s in clusters of between five 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 to club-shaped, long and wide with a rounded operculum. Flowering occurs between September and February and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody, cup-shaped, hemispherical or shortened spherical capsule long and wide with the valves near rim level.

Taxonomy

''Eucalyptus rossii'' was first formally described in 1902 by the botanist

Richard Thomas Baker Richard Thomas Baker (1 December 1854 – 14 July 1941) was an Australian economic botanist, museum curator and educator. Early life Baker was born in Woolwich, England, son of Richard Thomas Baker, a blacksmith, and his wife Sarah, née Colkett. ...

and chemist

Henry George Smith Henry George Smith (26 July 1852 – 19 September 1924) was an Australian chemist whose pioneering work on the chemistry of the essential oils of the Australian flora achieved worldwide recognition. Smith was born at Littlebourne, Kent, Englan ...

in ''A Research on the Eucalypts especially in regard to their Essential Oils''. 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 ...

(''rossii'') honours William John Clunies-Ross (1850-1914), for his attention to the flora of the Bathurst region.

Distribution and habitat

Inland scribbly gum has a scattered distribution over the New South Wales tablelands, western slopes and the central coast, from

Tenterfield Tenterfield is a regional town in New South Wales, Australia. At the , Tenterfield had a population of 4,066. Tenterfield's proximity to many regional centres and its position on the route between Sydney and Brisbane led to its development as a ...

in the north to

Bombala Bombala is a town in the Monaro region of south-eastern New South Wales, Australia, in Snowy Monaro Regional Council. It is approximately south of the state capital, Sydney, and south of the town of Cooma. The name derives from an Aboriginal ...

in the south. The trees grow well in sandy and stony well-drained soils, usually on slopes. They are found in areas with moderate temperatures and rainfall of per annum. They are part of open dry sclerophyll woodland communities and associated species include '' E. haemastoma'' and '' E. racemosa''.

Ecology

These trees usually have scribble marks on the bark formed by the burrowing larvae of a small moth, '' Ogmograptis scribula''. The insect lays eggs within layers of bark and when the larvae hatch they burrow into the bark.

Use in horticulture

''E. rossii'' is available commercially in seed form or as seedlings. It is useful as a shade tree which grows well in full sun with well drained soils that can cope in poor shallow, stony soils. It is both

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

and

frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor in an above-freezing atmosphere coming in contact with a solid surface whose temperature is below freezing, and resulting in a phase change from water vapor (a gas) ...

tolerant with a flower display through summer that will attract birds.

References