''Eucalyptus loxophleba'', commonly known as York gum, daarwet, goatta, twotta or yandee, is a species of tree or mallee 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 Western Australia. It has rough bark on the trunk, smooth olive to brownish bark above, lance-shaped adult leaves, flowers buds in groups of between seven and eleven, white flowers and conical fruit. Eucalyptus loxophleba buds

Description

''Eucalyptus loxophleba'' is a mallee or a tree that typically grows to a height of 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 trunk has a diameter of about of and varying amounts, depending on subspecies, of rough fibrous-flaky or smooth bark on the trunk and smooth grey-brown over copper 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 more or less triangular, egg-shaped or almost round

glaucous ''Glaucous'' (, ) is used to describe the pale grey or bluish-green appearance of the surfaces of some plants, as well as in the names of birds, such as the glaucous gull (''Larus hyperboreus''), glaucous-winged gull (''Larus glaucescens''), g ...

leaves that are long and wide. Adult leaves are lance-shaped to curved, the same glossy, dark green on both sides, long and wide tapering to a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils in groups of seven, nine or eleven 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 pear shaped, long and wide with a rounded operculum. Flowering has been observed in most months and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody, conical capsule long and wide with the valves below rim level.

Taxonomy and naming

''Eucalyptus loxophleba'' was first formally described in 1867 by

George Bentham George Bentham (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studi ...

in Volume 3 of ''

Flora Australiensis ''Flora Australiensis: a description of the plants of the Australian Territory'', more commonly referred to as ''Flora Australiensis'', and also known by its standard abbreviation ''Fl. Austral.'', is a seven-volume flora of Australia published be ...

''. In 1903 William Fitzgerald changed the name to ''Eucalyptus foecunda'' var. ''loxophleba'', but the name is not accepted by the

Australian Plant Census The Australian Plant Census (APC) provides an online interface to currently accepted, published, scientific names of the vascular flora of Australia, as one of the output interfaces of the national government Integrated Biodiversity Information Syst ...

. Hybrids with '' E. absita'' and '' E. wandoo'' have been recorded. 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 ...

(''loxophleba'') is derived from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

meaning "cross-wise" and meaning "a vein".

Noongar The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the so ...

peoples know the tree as daarwet, goatta, twotta or yandee, the latter is noted as in popular use. In 1972,

Ian Brooker Murray Ian Hill Brooker AM (2 June 1934 – 25 June 2016), better known as Ian Brooker, was an Australian botanist. He was widely recognised as the leading authority on the genus ''Eucalyptus''. Ian Brooker was born in Adelaide, South Australi ...

described the subspecies ''gratiae'' and ''loxophleba'' and in 1992

Lawrie Johnson Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, FAA, (26 June 1925 – 1 August 1997) known as Lawrie Johnson, was an Australian Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic botany, botanist. He worked at the Royal Botanic Garden ...

and Ken Hill described subspecies ''lissophloia'' and ''supralaevis''. All four names have been accepted by the Australian Plant Census. * ''Eucalyptus loxophleba'' subsp. ''gratiae'' Brooker is a tree with smooth, shining bark and larger leaves, buds and fruit that the

autonym Autonym may refer to: * Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym * Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name See also * Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...

, subsp. ''loxophleba''. * ''Eucalyptus loxophleba'' subsp. ''lissophloia'' L.A.S.Johnson & K.D.Hill is a mallee with only or mostly only smooth bark. * ''Eucalyptus loxophleba'' subsp. ''loxophleba'' Benth. is a tree with rough bark from the trunk to the smaller branches. * ''Eucalyptus loxophleba'' subsp. ''supralaevis'' L.A.S.Johnson & K.D.Hill is a tree with rough bark at the base of the trunk and smooth bark on the larger branches and often also the upper trunk.

Distribution and habitat

Woodlands containing ''E. loxophleba'' are found across a broad swathe of Western Australia from the

Mid West The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

south through the Wheatbelt and east into the Goldfields-Esperance region of the state. It is found among rocky outcrops and on flats, rises, slopes, hilltops, near salt lakes and along drainage lines. The species will grow in a range of soil types such as red-brown or rocky loam, in sands or sandy clays over

laterite Laterite is both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by ...

, dolerite or

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 undergro ...

. The tree was recorded as common around the early settlement of

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

, whence the vernacular "York gum" is derived, and areas near Bolgart, Toodyay, Northam and from Narrogin to Broomehill. Subspecies ''gratiae'' occurs between Dumbleyung 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 ...

, subspecies ''loxophleba'' from near Moora to Bruce Rock and Chillinup on the

Pallinup River Pallinup River is a river located in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. It was previously known as Salt River. The Pallinup rises 10 km southeast of Broomehill, and flows in a southeasterly direction toward the coast passin ...

, subspecies ''lissophloia'' further inland between Bencubbin, Merredin, Lake Minigwal, Coonana and

Peak Charles Peak or The Peak may refer to: Basic meanings Geology * Mountain peak ** Pyramidal peak, a mountaintop that has been sculpted by erosion to form a point Mathematics * Peak hour or rush hour, in traffic congestion * Peak (geometry), an (''n''-3)-d ...

and subspecies ''supralaevis'' in more northern areas between the Murchison River, Dongara, Lake Barlee, the Die Hardy Range and

Wongan Hills Wongan Hills is a range of low flat-topped hills in the Avon Wheatbelt bioregion of Western Australia. It is located at , in the Shire of Wongan–Ballidu. History The range was first recorded in 1836 by Surveyor General of Western Australia Jo ...

Conservation status

This eucalypt is classified as "not threatened" in Western Australia 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

Natural populations of ''E. loxophleba'' grow in areas affected by dryland

salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensionless and equal ...

. All four subspecies could possibly be used in the remediation of dryland salinity, but subspecies ''lissophloia'' has been more widely cultivated because of its potential as an oil mallee. This subspecies has also been introduced to the eastern States in planting for

carbon sequestration Carbon sequestration is the process of storing carbon in a carbon pool. Carbon dioxide () is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological, chemical, and physical processes. These changes can be accelerated through changes in land ...

. Historically, the wood of subspecies ''loxophleba'' was used by

wheelwright A wheelwright is a craftsman who builds or repairs wooden wheels. The word is the combination of "wheel" and the word "wright", (which comes from the Old English word "''wryhta''", meaning a worker or shaper of wood) as in shipwright and arkw ...

s and similar workers. The heartwood of the tree is yellow-brown, hard and tough with an interlocked grain. The wood has a green density of about 1185 kg/m³ and an air-dried density about 1060 kg/m³. Image:Eucalyptus loxophleba trunk murchison orig.jpg, trunk detail Image:Eucalyptus loxophleba - Jardín Botánico de Barcelona - Barcelona, Spain - DSC08962.JPG, cultivated specimen in Jardín Botánico de Barcelona Image:York Gum in Primer of Forestry Poole 1922.png, mature tree with man at roadside, circa 1920

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q12839331 loxophleba Eucalypts of Western Australia Trees of Australia Myrtales of Australia Taxa named by George Bentham Taxa named by Ian Brooker Taxa named by Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson Plants described in 1867