Eucalyptus fastigata

Potentially a very tall tree, reaching 60 metres in some habitats. It has a sturdy straight trunk with fibrous-stringybark at the base, but does not form a lignotuber. The upper limbs have bare-smooth bark, white-to-grey with bark shedding in long ribbons.

It grows mainly in the NSW tablelands, but also occurs on the south coast. It extends from eastern Victoria, north along the NSW south coast and tablelands divisions, through the central coast and tablelands divisions, into the northern tablelands near Ebor. There is at least one record near Noosa in Queensland. It is found in wet sclerophyll forest, usually on soils of higher fertility – basalt and shale most commonly.

It forms a dominant component of many vegetation types in some areas, some of which can be quite scenic – such as wet sclerophyll forest on moist ground with basalt rocks and a moist fern, grass and forb ground layer. It is the dominant remnant tree scattered through Mt Tomah Botanic Gardens, one of the 3 government-botanic gardens of Sydney.

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 disjunct, ovate to elliptic and glossy green, to 12 cm long and 5 cm wide. The adult leaves are also disjunct, lanceolate to 15 cm long and to 3 cm wide, green and glossy and concolorous or can be discolorous. The leaves have very prominent venation which helps identification (the venation reminds this Editor of some wattle leaves).

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 11 to 15. The umbellasters are paired in the leaf axils; a rare feature in eucalypts which aids identification. Mature buds are clavate (club-shaped) to 6 mm long and 3 mm wide with a conical and slightly-beaked operculum / calyptra. Flowers are white and occur between December and February.

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 capsules are conical to pyriform (pear-shaped), to 8 mm long and 7 mm wide with valves usually rim-level to exserted.