Eucalyptus conferta explained

Eucalyptus conferta is a rare, slender tree that is endemic to a small area near Chewton, Victoria in Australia. It has thick, rough, fissured bark, dull green to bluish, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds arranged in groups of seven, white flowers and hemispherical fruit.

Description

Eucalyptus conferta is a slender tree typically growing to a height of about 15sigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 with thick, rough, fissured bark. The leaves on young plants are linear, curved, dull and glaucous, up to long and wide on a short petiole, or sessile. Adult leaves are dull green to bluish, lance-shaped, long and wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in groups of seven in leaf axils on a thin peduncle long, the individual buds on a thin pedicel 2–5. The mature buds are oval, long and wide with a conical operculum long. Flowering occurs in autumn and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody, hemispherical to almost conical capsule long and wide on a slender pedicel NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long.[1] [2]

Taxonomy and naming

Eucalyptus conferta was first formally described in 2012 by Kevin James Rule and the description was published in the journal Muelleria from a specimen collected in the Fryers Range west of Malmsbury.[3] The specific epithet (conferta) is a Latin word meaning "pressed together", "crowded", "thick" or "dense",[4] referring to the crowded leaves on immature plants.

Distribution and habitat

This eucalypt is a rare tree, restricted to the Glenluce State Forest about south of Chewton in Victoria, where it grows on hilly sites in dry, shallow soils.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Messina . Andre . Stajsic . Val . Eucalyptus conferta . Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria . 4 May 2019.
  2. Rule . Kevin James . Five new endemic eucalypts for Victoria. Muelleria . 2012 . 30 . 2 . 89–91 . 4 May 2019.
  3. Web site: Eucalyptus conferta. APNI. 4 May 2019.
  4. Book: Brown. Roland Wilbur. The Composition of Scientific Words. 1956. Smithsonian Institution Press. Washington, D.C.. 227.