Eucalyptus sideroxylon explained

Eucalyptus sideroxylon, commonly known as mugga ironbark,[1] or red ironbark[2] is a small to medium-sized tree that is endemic to eastern Australia. It has dark, deeply furrowed ironbark, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, white, red, pink or creamy yellow flowers and cup-shaped to shortened spherical fruit.

Description

Eucalyptus sideroxylon is a tree that typically grows to a height of and forms a lignotuber. The bark is dark grey to black, deeply furrowed ironbark on the trunk and larger branches, smooth white to grey on the thinnest branches. Young plants and coppice regrowth have lance-shaped to oblong or linear leaves that are long and wide. Adult leaves are lance-shaped, the same shade of green on both sides, long and wide tapering to a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils on an unbranched peduncle long, the individual buds on pedicels long. Mature buds are oval or diamond-shaped, long and wide with a conical to beaked operculum. Flowering occurs from April to December and the flowers are white, red, pink or creamy yellow. The fruit is a woody cup-shaped to shortened spherical capsule long and wide with the valves below the level of the rim.[3] [4] [5] [6]

Taxonomy and naming

Allan Cunningham recorded the name Eucalyptus sideroxylon in Thomas Mitchell's 1848 Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia but did not provide a description of the plant. The first formal description of the species was published in 1887 by William Woolls in Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales.[7] [8] The specific epithet (sideroxylon) is derived from the ancient Greek words, meaning "iron" and, meaning "wood".[9]

Two subspecies of E. sideroxylon are accepted by the Australian Plant Census as at December 2019:

Distribution and habitat

Mugga ironbark is widespread and often abundant in woodland from south-eastern Queensland through New South Wales to Victoria. Subspecies improcera is only known from the Barakula State Forest north-northwest of Chinchilla.

Uses

The leaves are used in the production of cineole based eucalyptus oil.[13]

Apiarists in New South Wales place hives in red-ironbark woodlands to collect the honey.[6]

Chemistry

Molecules produced by plants in case of pathogens attacks are called phytoalexins. Such compounds can be implied in the hypersensitive response of plants. High levels of polyphenols (stilbenoids and ellagitannins) in E. sideroxylon wood can explain its natural preservation against rot.[14]

See also

References

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Hill . Ken . Eucalyptus sideroxylon . Royal Botanic Garden Sydney . 22 December 2019 . 19 August 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230819152413/https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Eucalyptus~sideroxylon . live .
  2. Web site: Brooker . M. Ian H. . Slee . Andrew V. . Eucalyptus sideroxylon . Royal Botanic Gardens, Victoria . 23 December 2019 . 23 December 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191223061353/https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/b967c639-c30e-4bdd-8f78-f8c903134f5c . live .
  3. Web site: Eucalyptus sideroxylon . Euclid: Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research . 29 May 2020 . 22 June 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210622110641/https://apps.lucidcentral.org/euclid/text/entities/eucalyptus_sideroxylon.htm . live .
  4. Web site: Chippendale . George M. . Eucalyptus sideroxylon . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of the Environment and Energy, Canberra . 23 December 2019 . 19 August 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230819152410/https://profiles.ala.org.au/opus/foa/profile/Eucalyptus%20sideroxylon . live .
  5. Web site: Messina . Andre . Stajsic . Val . Eucalyptus sideroxylon subsp. sideroxylon . Royal Botanic Gardens, Victoria . 23 December 2019 . 23 December 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191223061346/https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/018f3a83-d75d-42da-8047-faf278a3cbbe . live .
  6. Web site: An illustrated guide to Australia's gum blossoms. Dean Nicolle. Australian Geographic. 30 April 2010. 19 November 2017. Dean Nicolle. 17 November 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20171117095328/http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/science-environment/2010/04/guide-to-australias-gum-blossoms. live.
  7. Web site: Eucalyptus sideroxylon. APNI. 23 December 2019. 19 August 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230819152414/https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/rest/instance/apni/455139. live.
  8. Woolls . William . Notes on Eucalyptus leucoxylon (Series 2) . Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales . 1887 . 1 . 859–860 . 23 December 2019 . 20 July 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190720135031/https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/30467#page/891/mode/1up . live .
  9. Backer, C.A. (1936). Verklarend woordenboek der wetenschappelijke namen van de in Nederland en Nederlandsch-Indië in het wild groeiende en in tuinen en parken gekweekte varens en hoogere planten (Edition Nicoline van der Sijs).
  10. Web site: Eucalyptus sideroxylon subsp. improcera. Australian Plant Census. 23 December 2019. 23 December 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191223061342/https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/229343. live.
  11. Bean . Anthony R. . A new subspecies of Eucalyptus sideroxylon A.Cunn. ex Woolls (Myrtaceae) from Queensland . Austrobaileya . 2010 . 8 . 2 . 139–141 . 41739124 .
  12. Web site: Eucalyptus sideroxylon subsp. sideroxylon. Australian Plant Census. 23 December 2019. 23 December 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191223061343/https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/77044. live.
  13. Boland, D.J., Brophy, J.J., and A.P.N. House, Eucalyptus Leaf Oils, 1991,
  14. Inhibition of wood-rotting fungi by stilbenes and other polyphenols in Eucalyptus sideroxylon . John H. . Hart . W. E. . Hillis . Phytopathology . 64 . 939–48 . 1974 . 10.1094/Phyto-64-939 . 7.

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