Eucalyptus eugenioides

A tree reaching 30 metres tall with a canopy spread to 10 or 15 metres.

It is one of the “stringybark” eucalypts – with long-fibrous stingybark persisting up to the ultimate small branches.

It is a common tree often on soils of higher fertility, forming part of dry sclerophyll forest and woodlands. Often, they are found on steep fertile hills and higher ground.

It is a tree found naturally in NSW and Queensland, with a stong coastal distribution and moving into the tablelands-coastal fringe. They occur as far south as Wyndham on the southern New South Wales Coast – moving northwards, as far west as around Kandos-Lithgow, then northwards along the coast and eastern tablelands, into Queensland, where it extends to as far north as around Gin Gin and Monto.

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 alternate, more or less green  to 5 cm wide and 10 cm long, usually with the typical asymmetric base and with scabrid / asperous texture due to the stellate hairs on the stems and petioles; leaves are typicall discolorous.

The adult leaves are disjunct, lanceolate to falcate, to 16 cm long and to about 3.5 cm wide, green, generally concolorous and with a distinctive papery-thin texture which helps in identification.

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 groups (umbellasters) of 9 to 15. Mature buds are diamond-shaped to 8 mm long and 4 mm wide, genearlly obovoid to fusiform. Flowering are white, occurring mainly in spring to summer.

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 strongly pedicillate (compare to many other stringybarks) – a strong identification feature, and rounded / hemispherical to globose (broad-wine glass) with a descending disc and 3 to 4 valves at rim level.