Eucalyptus regnans
| Eucalyptus regnans | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| El Grande in Tasmania's Styx Valley | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Rosids |
| Order: | Myrtales |
| Family: | Myrtaceae |
| Genus: | Eucalyptus |
| Species: | E. regnans |
| Binomial name | |
|
Eucalyptus regnans F.Muell. |
|
| Synonyms | |
|
Eucalyptus amygdalina var. regnans F.Muell. |
|
Eucalyptus amygdalina var. regnans F.Muell.
Eucalyptus regnans, known variously as mountain ash, swamp gum, or stringy gum, is a species of Eucalyptus native to Tasmania and Victoria in southeastern Australia and the tallest flowering plant and one of the tallest trees in the world, second to the coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens). A straight-trunked tree with smooth grey bark and a stocking of rough brown bark to 5–20 metres (16–66 ft) above the ground, it regularly grows to 85 metres (279 ft), with the tallest living specimen, the Centurion, standing 99.6 metres (327 feet) tall in Tasmania. The white flowers appear in autumn. Victorian botanist Ferdinand von Mueller described the species in 1871.
Eucalyptus regnans grows in pure stands in tall wet forest, sometimes with rainforest understory, in temperate areas receiving over 1,200 millimetres (47 in) rainfall a year on deep loam soils. Many of these have been logged, including trees of a greater height than trees of any species now living—one specimen recorded at over 132 metres (433 ft) in Victoria. Killed by bushfire, Eucalyptus regnans regenerates from seed and has a lifespan of several hundred years. Mature Eucalyptus regnans-dominated forests have been found to store more carbon than any other forest known. Also known in the timber industry as Tasmanian oak, E. regnans is logged for its wood and grown in plantations in New Zealand and Chile as well as Australia.
Victorian Botanist Ferdinand von Mueller described Eucalyptus regnans in 1871, using the Latin regnans "ruling" as its species epithet. He noted, "This species or variety, which might be called Eucalyptus regnans, represents the loftiest tree in British Territory." However, until 1882 he considered the tree to be a variety of Eucalyptus amygdalina and called it thus, not using the binomial name Eucalyptus regnans until the Systematic Census of Australian Plants in 1882, and giving it a formal diagnosis in 1888 in Volume 1 of the Key to the System of Victorian Plants, where he describes it as "stupendously tall". Von Mueller did not designate a type specimen, nor did he use the name Eucalyptus regnans on his many collections of "White Mountain Ash" at the Melbourne Herbarium. Victorian botanist Jim Willis selected a lectotype in 1967, one of the more complete collections of a specimen from the Dandenong Ranges, that von Mueller had noted was one "of the tall trees measured by Mr D. Boyle in March 1867."
...
Wikipedia