Eucalyptus pellita, commonly known as the large-fruited red mahogany,[1] is a species of medium to tall tree that is endemic to north-eastern Queensland. It has rough, fibrous or flaky bark on the trunk and branches, lance-shaped to egg-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, white flowers and cup-shaped to conical fruit.
Eucalyptus pellita is a tree that typically grows to a height of and forms a lignotuber. It has rough, greyish or reddish, fibrous or flaky bark on the trunk and branches. Adult leaves are glossy green but paler on the lower surface, broadly lance-shaped to egg-shaped, long, wide, tapering to a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils on a flattened, unbranched peduncle long, the individual buds on pedicels long. Mature buds are oval, long and wide with a conical or beaked operculum. Flowering has been recorded in February and October and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody, cup-shaped to conical capsule long and wide with the valves protruding strongly above the rim.[2]
Eucalyptus pellita was first formally described in 1864 by Victorian government botanist Ferdinand von Mueller in Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae, based on plant material collected near Rockingham Bay by John Dallachy.[3] [4] The specific epithet (pellita) is from Latin, meaning "covered with skin", possibly referring to the leaves.
Large-fruited red mahogany grows in open forest, mainly on gentle slopes. It is found in wet, near-coastal forests north from Abergowrie to Papua New Guinea.
This eucalypt is listed as "least concern" under the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.[5]