Eucalyptus pluricaulis explained

Eucalyptus pluricaulis, commonly known as the purple-leaved mallee,[1] is a species of mallee that is endemic to Western Australia. It has smooth bark, dull bluish green, lance-shaped leaves, flower buds in groups of between nine and fifteen, pale yellow flowers and cylindrical to barrel-shaped fruit.

Description

Eucalyptus pluricaulis is a mallee that typically grows to a height of and forms a lignotuber. It has smooth, greyish bark that is copper-coloured when new. Adult leaves are the same shade of dull bluish green on both sides, long and wide tapering to a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils in groups of between nine and fifteen on an unbranched peduncle long, the individual buds on pedicels up to long. Mature buds are an elongated spindle shape, long and wide with a horn-shaped operculum that is three or four times as long as the floral cup. Flowering occurs from March to September and the flowers are pale yellow. The fruit is a woody, cylindrical to barrel-shaped capsule long and wide with the valves near rim level.[2] [3]

Taxonomy

Eucalyptus pluricaulis was first formally described in 1991 by Ian Brooker and Stephen Hopper in the journal Nuytsia from specimens Brooker collected near the Coorow-Greenhead Road in 1982.[4] The specific epithet (pluricaulis) is from the Latin plus, pluris meaning "more" or "several" and caulis meaning "stem", referring to the mallee habit of this eucalypt.[5]

In the same journal, Brooker and Hopper described two subspecies and the names have been accepted by the Australian Plant Census:

Distribution and habitat

Subspecies pluricaulis grows in tall mallee, often on slopes near breakaways and is found from near Three Springs and the Lesueur National Park to Southern Cross and Ravensthorpe. Subspecies porphyrea grows in mallee between Tarin Rock, the Fitzgerald River National Park and the Stirling Range.

Conservation status

Both subspecies of this mallee eucalypt are classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Eucalyptus pluricaulis Purple-leaved Mallee. 10 June 2017. Nindethana.
  2. Web site: Eucalyptus pluricaulis . Euclid: Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research . 30 May 2020.
  3. Brooker . M. Ian H. . Hopper . Stephen . A taxonomic review of Eucalyptus wandoo, E. redunca and allied species (Eucalyptus series Levispermae Maiden - (Myrtaceae) in Western Australia . Nuytsia . 1991 . 8 . 1 . 155–162 . 3 December 2019.
  4. Web site: Eucalyptus pluricaulis. APNI. 3 December 2019.
  5. Book: Francis Aubie Sharr . Francis Aubie Sharr . Western Australian Plant Names and their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, Western Australia . 9780958034180 . 280.
  6. Web site: Eucalyptus pluricaulis subsp. pluricaulis . Australian Plant Census . 3 December 2019.
  7. Web site: Eucalyptus pluricaulis subsp. prophyrea . Australian Plant Census . 3 December 2019.