Angophora costata

An iconic large tree (rarely a mallee), reaching up to 25 m tall, with a broad-spreading canopy.

It has a primarily coastal occurrence in NSW, extending down to the south coast, with some disjunct records in Victoria (north of Melbourne). It extends northwards to north and west of Tamworth, and Armidale, into Queensland and up in disjunct patches, to the west of Townsville. Found in areas where rainfall ranges between 630 and 1500 mm.  It is a weed in New Zealand.

It is typically found on sandstone and sandy areas in dry sclerophyll woodlands and forests, in gullies and creeklines, and on higher ground. It can be found on heavier shale soils in some instances and forms part of tall forests in some areas. It can also be found growing as a mallee in coastal shrubland. It is an iconic Sydney tree in the Hawkesbury sandstone suburbs.

The bark is smooth and red-salmon to brown-grey-purple and very conspicuous, making it an easily identifiable tree. It has an annual shedding process where large amounts of thin plates are shed. Old trees typically have many dimples, contorted branches and large bowl-like swellings (hence the reference to “apple” in the common name).

The juvenile foliage / coppicing growth is usually purple-red to begin with, changing to mid-green, lanceolate, to about 10 cm long and hairless; arranged oppositely.

Angophora spp. have simple adult leaves arranged oppositely to sub-opposite. In this species, leaves are lanceolate and usually very straight, to about 20 cm long and up to 7 cm wide with an acuminate apex, glabrous and discolorous, mid to dark green – not usually glossy and with not much noticeable odour; with a distinctive and attractive venation on the underside (best observed with a hand lens).

The primary inflorescence of “eucalypts” (Angophora / Corymbia / Eucalyptus) is an umbellaster (an umbel-like cluster of flowers). In Angophora, the flower still retains its small and free petals and sepals. They are not fused into a calyptra / operculum which is shed, as in Eucalyptus and Corymbia.

Flower buds are produced in umbellasters of 7, ovoid to globose to about 10 mm long and 11 mm wide. The petals are very short – about 5 mm long. The buds are usually green in colour.
Flowering can be observed in October to January and individual flowers are up to 1 to 2 cm across, bright cream to white. Like Corymbia spp., Angophora spp. have flowers positioned beyond the foliage at the terminals.

The capsules are ovoid to campanulate with conspicuous ribs and teeth and are comparatively large, to 20 mm long by 20 mm wide with a flat disc.