Eucalyptus macrandra

Eucalyptus macrandra, Long-flowered Marlock, is a mallee from 4 to 10 metres tall. Plants often produce multiple trunks that grow from a large lignotuber (swollen root mass).

The bark is smooth, light brown and is shed in long strips then ages to grey.

This species occurs naturally in Western Australia, growing in the south-west parts; west from Esperance to Albany and northwards from here to the Narrogin and Hyden regions.

It grows in mallee woodland and scrub on sandy soils and granite.

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 glossy-green, elliptic to ovate, to 7 cm long and 3 cm wide. The adult leaves are thick, bright green, lanceolate and up to 10 cm long by 3 cm wide.

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 in clusters of up to 30. They are long, up to 4 centimetres long and narrow, 0.4 cm wide and horn-shaped. The flowers form large clusters, yellow to yellow-green and are both profuse and conspicuous. Flowering occurs from December to March. Honeyeaters are attracted to the flowers.

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 cup-shaped, to 1 cm long and wide, with 3 to 4 valves at rim-level.