Eucalyptus baeuerlenii

Eucalyptus baeuerlenii, Baeuerlen’s Gum, is a small to medium tree, usually having multiple trunks (mallee growth habit), growing to 15 m tall with a spread of several metres.

It is another species endemic to NSW, growing on the boundary of the southern tablelands and south coast divide as well as in the Blue Mountains. There is a patch between Blackheath and Blaxland, then a disjunction to south-east of the Braidwood-area which extends south into the Budawang Range, west of Moruya, with a final disjunction to Wadbilliga National Park, east of Cooma.

It grows in wet sclerophyll forest and woodland, usually on moist sheltered slopes and shallow sandstone soils.

Bark is smooth, green, cream and brown.

Eucalyptus spp. have simple and usually alternate adult leaves with juvenile leaves starting off opposite to alternate (disjunct). In this species, the juvenile leaves are mostly opposite, green to grey-green, lanceolate, to 9 cm long and 3 cm wide. Adult leaves are lanceolate to falcate, to 18 cm long and 3 cm wide, glossy to dull green.

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, buds are in umbellasters of 3, each to 1 cm long with the operculum appearing as a prominent beak. Flowers are 1.5 centimetres across and white. They appear in February and March.

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, fruits are bell-shaped to cup-shaped, to 1 cm long and 1.2 cm wide.