ID this eucalypt

Gus

Interesting thread this one

I checked some of the old books and I found reference to this:

Eucalyptus tereticornis var. latifolia

which literally means "[tree with] well covered flowers [by] straight horned [opercula] and wide leaves"

It was a quite old name given by Bentham some 150 years ago to a botanical sample collected 200 years ago somewhere in QLD, and we cannot be very sure about what happened. Maybe just the juvenile leaves or intermediate leaves (not yet typically sickle shaped) of a normal E. tereticornis arrived to the old George.

Some years later, that "var. latifolia" was also tentatively identified as an hybrid of E. tereticornis:

E. alba ssp. platyphilla x E. tereticornis

Which, in some more years (the story of E. alba is a long one!), became

E. platyphylla × E. tereticornis ssp. tereticornis

So, I am not saying this is it. Just leaving another potential hybrid explanation, just with the funny detail of it being wide leaved. There could be others for sure. And it is already a confusing one, depending on what you interpret as E. platyphylla

Ekka, absolutely no sign of lanceolate shaped leaves anywhere on that tree? And, is there any chance to estimate the age of that specimen?

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Ekka

No lanceolate shaped leaves at all, very consistent throughout the canopy from juvenile to dead old leaves.

This tree was in Durack, SW of Brisbane GPO maybe 10kms.

It was the only one like that in the group, now deceased though.

I estimate it's age around 60 years, no more than 100 years.

It's unusual around Brisbane's metro areas to find really old eucs.

I mean there's some large ones but they are not 250 years old etc from Captain Cooks days. I don't know if they all got cleared, burnt, died of natural causes and we are looking at re-sprouts or seeded.

From various old timers around the place much of Brisbane was cleared for agriculture, very likely this place was and when the transition from rural to residential occurred the tree was allowed to grow or was planted.

How do you know so much about eucs? I mean you knew about this "var"

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Gus

It makes sense Ekka. The source tree for that botanical plate ("var. latifolia") I mentioned is possibly never to be found again, and there is no guarantee those traits passed to progeny or further generations of trees near the collection point (which is not too close to Brisbane), so I guess it all is largely speculative.

More speculation, this time about the Durack tree, but at once a bit of a logical bet, makes me think of at least four possible hypothesys:

1) It was an hybrid, developed naturally, one parent E. tereticornis, common in the area, the other parent a compatible species with broad leaves growing nearby, possibly section Exsertaria too, several candidate species.

2) It was a distinct form of E. tereticornis or of some other species within series Tereticornes. Many of these have quite a bit of variability. Several species to discard could be E. blakelyi, E. amplifolia, E. glaucina, E. exserta, and E. camaldulensis. Several of these have different forms to what could be considered "type" (for example, the classical E. camaldulensis along the Murray).

3) It was an hybrid, or at least something strange, developed elsewhere, one parent E. tereticornis, the other unknown, and it was planted there around 1950.

4) It was something else we cannot grasp now I think John was right and flower buds or at least the calyptra (opercula) could have given complementary hints. I have this small summary on what to look at to try to ID Eucalyptus with a high degree of certainty, just in case it is useful to someone. Plus some other blabla on eucalypt identification at the Eucalyptologics archives.

To finish making things complicated, there is this other species I already mentioned, whose name literally means "wide leaved": E. amplifolia. Seed pods are somewhat similar to E. tereticornis, so a potential hybrid would tend to retain that shape for the fruits. But this would be a quite speculative explanation.

I do not know so much, I just know a little about some eucalypts. There are way too many to know about them all But it happens because I live in an area of the world with some 50 species and 1.2 billion specimens of them, and I am a forester with a quite nice library on these trees

Curiously, one of my mystery trees around here involves as possible related things many of the species the folks participating in this thread have mentioned: E. longifolia, E. punctata, E. tereticornis, E. robusta! That's why I found this thread interesting Unfortunately, they do not look like the one at Durack.

Final question, if this tree was removed, does the stump still remain in place? Are there chances to see if it coppices?

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Ekka

It's likely going to be dozed for units.

That link you gave to here, ID your eucalypt. Taking samples of key organs.

No images coming up for me, something not right?

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Gus

I do not know, I can see it all okay at the moment, it might have been my server being temporarily down? Just in case... (sorry for graphic quality!)

Attached Images

GIT_Eucalyptus_ID.jpg (249.4 KB, 7 views)

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bill24

Ekka/gus......posts 29&30 Worked Here.........picture Of Leaves On Left And Tree X 2 On Right.

Regards, Bill24.