Eucalyptus cretata

Eucalyptus cretata, commonly known as Darke Peak mallee[2] or chalky mallee,[3] is a species of mallee or, rarely, a small, straggly tree and is endemic to a restricted part of South Australia. It has smooth whitish and grey bark, lance-shaped adult leaves, glaucous flower buds in groups of seven, white flowers and cup-shaped to barrel-shaped or conical fruit.

Darke Peak mallee
Eucalyptus cretata seedling in Maranoa Gardens
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Myrtales
Family: Myrtaceae
Genus: Eucalyptus
Species:
E. cretata
Binomial name
Eucalyptus cretata
P.J.Lang & Brooker[1]
E. cretata, field distribution

Description

Eucalyptus cretata is a mallee, sometimes a straggly tree, that typically grows to a height of about 4 m (13 ft) and forms a lignotuber. The bark is smooth, grey over coppery underbark, shedding in ribbons, and the branchlets are shiny red or brownish green and glaucous. Young plants and coppice regrowth have glaucous, egg-shaped to broadly lance-shaped leaves that are 45–100 mm (1.8–3.9 in) long and 25–50 mm (0.98–1.97 in) wide. Adult leaves are lance-shaped, the same colour on both sides, 78–150 mm (3.1–5.9 in) long and 13–35 mm (0.51–1.38 in) wide on a petiole 12–28 mm (0.47–1.10 in) long. The flower buds are arranged in groups of seven in leaf axils on a peduncle 5–15 mm (0.20–0.59 in) long, the individual buds on a pedicel up to 4 mm (0.16 in) long. Mature buds are glaucous, cylindrical to oval, 8–14 mm (0.31–0.55 in) long and 4–8 mm (0.16–0.31 in) wide with a striated, conical to rounded operculum. Flowering occurs spasmodically and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody, cup-shaped to barrel-shaped or conical capsule 6–10 mm (0.24–0.39 in) long and 7–11 mm (0.28–0.43 in) wide, often glaucous at first, and with the valves at the level of the rim.[2][4][3][5][6]

Taxonomy and naming

Eucalyptus cretata was first formally described in 1990 by Peter Lang and Ian Brooker from a specimen collected by Lang near Darke Peak in 1989. The description was published in the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.[7] The specific epithet (cretata) is a Latin word meaning "marked with chalk",[8] referring to the chalky bloom on the branchlets and flower buds.[4]

Distribution and habitat

Darke Peak mallee grow in mallee communities on the central Eyre Peninsula, between Caralue Bluff Conservation Park, Lock and Cowell.[5]

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References
  1. "Eucalyptus cretata". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  2. "Eucalyptus cretata". Euclid: Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  3. "Eucalyptus cretata (Myrtaceae) Chalky Mallee". Seeds of South Australia. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  4. Lang, Peter J.; Brooker, M. Ian (1990). "Two new mallee species from South Australia in Eucalyptus L'Herit. series Rufispermae" (PDF). Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. 13: 71–77. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  5. Nicolle, Dean (2013). Native Eucalypts of South Australia. Adelaide: Dean Nicolle. pp. 138–139. ISBN 9780646904108.
  6. Brooker, I. & Kleinig, D., Eucalyptus, An illustrated guide to identification, Reed Books, Melbourne, 1996
  7. "Eucalyptus cretata". APNI. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  8. Brown, Roland Wilbur (1956). The Composition of Scientific Words. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 484.
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