Eucalyptus arenacea, commonly known as the desert stringybark[1] or sand stringybark, is a tree or a mallee that is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It has rough bark to the thinnest branches, lance-shaped or curved adult leaves, club-shaped flower buds arranged in groups of between seven and fifteen, white flowers and hemispherical to more or less spherical fruit.
Eucalyptus arenacea is a tree with several to many stems or a robust mallee, grows to a height of NaNm (-2,147,483,648feet) and forms a lignotuber. It has rough, fibrous and stringy bark on its trunk and to the thinnest branches. Leaves on young plants and on coppice regrowth are arranged in opposite pairs and are egg-shaped, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide. Adult leaves are shiny green, arranged alternately, lance-shaped or curved, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide on a petiole NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long. The flowers are borne in groups of between seven and fifteen in leaf axils on a peduncle NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long, the individual buds on a pedicel NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long. The mature buds are oval to club-shaped, NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide with a rounded or conical operculum. Flowering mainly occurs between December and January and the flowers are white. The fruit is hemispherical to a truncated sphere, NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide on a pedicel up to 3sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long.[2] [3]
Eucalyptus arenacea was first formally described in 1988 by Julie Marginson and Pauline Ladiges and the description was published in Australian Systematic Botany.[4] The specific epithet (arenacea) is a Latin word meaning "of sand".[5]
Desert stringybark grows on pale-coloured sandhills and on sandplains between Keith, Pinaroo and Bordertown in the Ninety Mile Desert in South Australia and in the Little Desert and Big Desert areas of Victoria.