Flora Zambesiaca

Taxon Detail

FZ volume:4 part:0 (1978) Myrtaceae by F. White

(Search other Kew databases for: Eucalyptus grandis)

Eucalyptus grandis Hill ex Maiden

in Journ. Proc. Roy. Soc. N.S.W. 52: 501 (1918).?F. White, F.F.N.R.: 296 (1952).?Blakely, Key Eucalypts, ed. 3: 98 (1965).?Barrett & Mullin in Bull. Rhod. Bull. For. Res. 1: 49 (1968). TAB. 46 fig. D. Type from Australia.

Distribution:

Malawi

C: Lilongwe Distr., Bunda Forest, fl. & fr. 29.vi.1962, Chapman 1658 (SRGH).

Zambia

B: Sesheke, fr. Bourne s.n. (FHO).

C: Serenje, fr. 1.xi.1958. Savory 46 (FHO).

S: Siamambo Forest Reserve, fl. 8.vii.1954, Cooling 80 (FHO).

Zimbabwe

E: Inyanga, fr. xi.1957. Miller 4702 (SRGH).

Range:

?Toolur? occurs naturally in Queensland and New S. Wales

Habitat:

along a coastal belt 160 km. wide from 17º?32º S. At the northern end of its range it ascends to 750 m.

Description:

Tall tree. Bark smooth, deciduous, white, glaucous. Leaves up to 15 x 2 cm., narrowly lanceolate, attenuate-acuminate. Umbels axillary, 3?10-flowered; peduncles c. 1?1·2 x 0·25 cm., compressed; pedicels c. 0·3 cm. long; buds c. 1 x 0·5 cm., pyriform; operculum conical, shortly apiculate to rostrate, shorter than receptacle-tube. Fruit 0·7?0·8 x 0·6?0·8 cm., glaucous, cyathiform, rather thin, slightly contracted at the orifice; valves 4?6, rather thin, inserted just below the orifice.

Notes:

The closely related E. saligna Sm., ?Sidney Blue Gum? or ?Saligna?, extends from 28·?35· S. and mostly occurs at higher altitudes (up to 1220 m.). There is a considerable area where the ranges of the 2 species overlap, and here the populations are variable and intermediate, though the extremes are somewhat different. It appears that most of the stands of E. grandis/saligna in southern Africa are of hybrid origin, though closer to the former. Professional foresters tend to use the name ?Saligna? for trees of both these species and their presumed hybrids. In this work no attempt is made to distinguish between them. ?Saligna? has been planted in the F.Z. area since long before the beginning of this century and is now one of the most widely planted and familiar exotic trees.