Eucalyptus quadricostata, commonly known as the square-fruited ironbark,[1] is a species of small to medium-sized ironbark that is endemic to Queensland. It has rough ironbark on the trunk and branches, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, white flowers and cup-shaped fruit that are square in cross-section.
Eucalyptus quadricostata is a tree that typically grows to a height of and forms a lignotuber. It has hard, rough, dark grey to black ironbark on the trunk and branches. Young plants and coppice regrowth have bluish grey to glaucous, egg-shaped to almost round leaves that are long and wide and petiolate. Adult leaves are the same shade of dull green on both sides, lance-shaped to curved, long and wide, tapering to a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged on the ends of branchlets in groups of seven on a branched peduncle long, the individual buds on pedicels long. Mature buds are club-shaped, square in cross-section with a rib on each corner, long and wide with a conical, rounded or pyramid-shaped operculum. Flowering has been recorded in January and July and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody, cup-shaped capsule that is square in cross-section, long and wide with the valves near rim level.[2] [3]
Eucalyptus quadricostata was first formally described in 1985 by Ian Brooker in the journal Austrobaileya from material he collected near "Oakvale H.S.".[4]
This eucalypt is classified as "least concern" under the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.[5]