Eucalyptus microtheca
| Eucalyptus microtheca | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Rosids |
| Order: | Myrtales |
| Family: | Myrtaceae |
| Genus: | Eucalyptus |
| Species: | E. microtheca |
| Binomial name | |
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Eucalyptus microtheca F.Muell. |
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Eucalyptus microtheca, commonly known as the coolibah, is a species of eucalypt native to Australia.
The tree typically grows to a height of 10 metres (33 ft), forms a lignotuber and sometimes has a mallee habit. It has a whitish grey to dark grey, box-type bark that is often deeply fissured, coarsely flaky or becoming tessellated.
The adult leaves alternate, concolorous, dull, green to blue-green in appearance with petioles that are 0.6 to 2 centimetres (0.24 to 0.79 in) long. The blade is lanceolate to falcate in shape and 5 to 19.5 cm (2.0 to 7.7 in) in length and 0.6 to 4.5 centimetres (0.24 to 1.77 in) wide with a base tapering to petiole with a pointed apex.
The tree blooms between September and January producing terminal inflorescences with slender peduncles that are 0.2 to 1.2 cm (0.08 to 0.47 in) long on a seven flowered umbellasters. Flowers are white in colour and later form fruit that are truncate-globose to obconical in shape on pedicels 0.1 to 0.3 cm (0.04 to 0.12 in) long containing dark brown seeds. The tree fruits year round.
E. microtheca is most closely related to the widespread Eucalyptus coolabah which is found in similar but drier habitats to the south and south-east It is also closely related to Eucalyptus victrix which is found in even drier habitats from central Australia west to the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
The tree is distributed widely across northern Australia and mostly found along river banks and in the heavy soils of flood plains. It is the second most widely distributed species in Australia after Eucalyptus camaldulensis.
The species is found waterlogged flats, along the margins of swamps in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Populations of the tree are scattered through several IBRA regions including Dampierland, Northern Kimberley, Central Kimberley, Ord Victoria plain and Victoria Bonaparte. It is also distributed throughout the top end of the Northern Territory east from the Western Australian border as far north as about Newcastle Waters and through the Barkly Tableland east through the catchment ares of the Roper and McArthur Rivers and into the Gulf Country of Queensland. In Queensland the range of the plant extends from the Gulf Country to western Cape York and south to about Mount Isa.
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Wikipedia