Eucalyptus erectifolia, commonly known as Stirling Range mallee, is a species of mallee that is endemic to Western Australia. It has smooth bark, narrow lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of between seven and thirteen, white flowers and cup-shaped fruit.
Eucalyptus erectifolia is a mallee that typically grows to a height of, has smooth grey bark and forms a lignotuber. Young plants and coppice regrowth have sessile, egg-shaped to elliptical leaves long, wide and arranged in opposite pairs. Adult leaves are arranged alternately, narrow lance-shaped, long, wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils in groups of between seven and thirteen on an unbranched peduncle long, the individual buds on a pedicel long. Mature buds are oval to spindle-shaped, long, wide with a conical operculum. Flowering occurs between March and May and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody, broadly cup-shaped capsule long, wide with the valves near the level of the rim.[1] [2] [3]
Eucalyptus erectifolia was first formally described in 1986 by Ian Brooker and Stephen Hopper from a specimen collected in the Stirling Range in 1981. The description was published in the journal Nuytsia.[4] The specific epithet (erectifolia) is derived from the Latin "erectus"[5] and -folia meaning "leaved" referring to the way the leaves are held in the crown.
This species is part of the subgenus Eucalyptus series Diversiformae, a group of mallees that all have adult leaves held erect, buds with a single unscarred operculum and pyramidal seeds.
Stirling Range mallee grows in sandy-loamy-gravelly soils in open shrubland on hillslopes and sandplains in the Stirling Range.[2]
Eucalyptus erectifolia is classified as "Priority Four" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife, meaning that is rare or near threatened.[6]