Eucalyptus paedoglauca, commonly known as the Mount Stuart ironbark,[1] is a small to medium-sized tree that is endemic to a small area in Queensland. It has rough, dark ironbark, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, white flowers and cup-shaped fruit. It is only known from a few hills near Townsville.
Eucalyptus paedoglauca is a tree that typically grows to a height of and forms a lignotuber. It has rough dark grey to black ironbark to the thinnest branches. Young plants and coppice regrowth have glaucous, broadly lance-shaped to egg-shaped or sickle-shaped leaves that are long and wide. Adult leaves are the same shade of usually dull green on both sides, lance-shaped, long and wide, tapering to a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged on the ends of branchlets on a branched peduncle in groups of seven, the peduncle long, the individual buds on pedicels long. Mature buds are oval, about long and wide with a conical to rounded operculum. Flowering occurs from April to May and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody, cup-shaped capsule long and wide with the valves near rim level.[2]
Eucalyptus paedoglauca was first formally described in 1991 by Lawrie Johnson and Donald Blaxell from material collected on Mount Stuart, near Townsville. The description was published in the journal Telopea in a paper by Ken Hill and Johnson.[3] [4] The specific epithet (paedoglauca) is from ancient Greek, meaning "child" or "youth" and "pale blue or grey", referring to the glaucous juvenile leaves.
Mount Stuart ironbark grows in remnant vegetation on Mount Stuart and a few other hills near Townsville.
This eucalypt is listed as "vulnerable" under the Australian Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and by the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992. The main threats to the species are road maintenance and inappropriate fire regimes.[5]