Eucalyptus scias

A tree growing to 20 m tall, forming a lignotuber and usually with noticeably wide leaves. It sometimes grows as a mallee.

It is naturally found in high rainfall dry to wet sclerophyll forests, on the NSW coast and tablelands fringes, on soils of low to medium fertility. It occurs as far south as the Batemans Bay / Narooma area in NSW, occurring in several disjunct populations northwards; extending just into the tablelands areas, to as far north as Tabulum and Jennings near the Queensland border.

The NSW Herbarium currently recognises three subspecies:

• Subspecies apoda, grows on soils derived from granite on the ranges east of Tenterfield.
• Subspecies scias is mainly found in near-coastal areas between Cessnock and Narooma, mainly on enriched sandy loams to loams.
• Subspecies callismatha is found between Wollongong and Narooma.

The bark is fibrous grey or brown (stringybark/mahogany) with shallow longitudinal furrows.

Eucalyptus spp. have simple and usually alternate adult leaves with juvenile leaves starting off opposite to alternate (disjunct). In this species, juvenile/ coppicing leaves are dull green, paler on the lower surface, broadly lanceolate, to 100 mm long and to 45 mm wide.
Adult leaves are glossy-green but paler on the lower surface, lanceolate to broadly lanceolate to falcate, to 200 mm long and to 60 mm wide, tapering to a petiole to 27 mm long.

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 umbellasters of three or seven, the individual buds sessile or on pedicels up to 8 mm long. Mature buds are oval to spindle-shaped or diamond-shaped, to 19 mm long and to 13 mm wide with a conical to beaked operculum / calyptra.
Flowering has been recorded from January to February and the flowers are white.

The fruit of eucalypts are a woody capsule (commonly called ‘gum nuts’) which come in a wide variety of shapes with the top part having a sunken, flat or raised disc and with the valves inserted, disc-level, exserted to strongly exserted. In this species, the fruit is conical or bell-shaped to 10 mm long and to 18 mm wide with two ribs on the sides and the valves protruding prominently (a typical mahogany feature). They are comparatively large compared to many other eucalypts which is a useful identification feature.