Eucalyptus polyanthemos

A tree reaching 20 metres tall with a canopy spread to 10 metres, forming a lignotuber.

The bark can be a mixture of smooth to fibrous – sometimes with long sinuous strips or bare with different coloured patches with some fibrous material and with upper branches typically smooth.

It can be found commonly in NSW and Victoria, found on the tablelands and western slopes, south from a line between Taree and Dubbo – heading south to as far west as around Forbes, through Wagga Wagga and then extending into the far south coast. It occurs threough much of eastern Victoria and into the western half to around Ararat. It has become a weed in Western Australia.

Eucalyptus polyanthemos is typically found on higher ground in rocky country but can also be found lower down the landscape on more fertile soils, forming part of dry sclerophyll woodlands.

Eucalyptus spp. have simple and usually alternate adult leaves with juvenile leaves starting off opposite to alternate (disjunct). In this species, the juvenile foliage / coppicing growth is ovate to robicular, to 8 cm long and 6.5 cm wide, base truncate to rounded and the apex rounded, green to blue-green or blue-grey.

The adult leaves are disjunct, and are intermediate between juvenile and more-adult usually, to 11 cm long and 5 cm wide, concolorous, dull-green-blue or blue-grey.

The primary inflorescence of “eucalypts” (Angophora / Corymbia / Eucalyptus) is an umbellaster (an umbel-like cluster of flowers). In the flowers of Corymbia and Eucalyptus, the petals and sepals are fused into the distinctive calyptra / operculum (bud cap) which is shed when the flower opens (in some species, 2 bud caps (opercula) are shed). The flowers are conspicuously staminate – where many stamens are basically taking over the role of the petals, all surrounding one central carpel. In this species, the flower buds are arranged in leaf axils in compound groups (umbellasters) of 7. Mature buds are diamond-shaped to ovoid, to 5 mm long and 3 mm wide with a rounded to conical or slightly-beaked operculum and with the calyptra scar present (hence, each flower has 2 bud caps). Flowering has been observed in Spring to Summer, with flowers white and each flower very small (about 5 mm across).

Eucalyptus produce a capsule (gum-nut) which house valves which open to release the seed. The fruits (capsules) of some boxes have a cylindrical to urceolate shape. In this species, the capsules are obconical to barrel-shaped, with the disc descending, with 3 to 4 valves, enclosed, to about 6 mm long by 6 mm wide.