Eucalyptus major


Eucalyptus major, commonly known as grey gum, is a species of tree that is endemic to a small area near the New South Wales - Queensland border. It has smooth greyish bark, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven and conical to cup-shaped fruit.

Description

Eucalyptus major is a tree that typically grows to a height of and forms a lignotuber. It has smooth, blotched greyish bark that is shed in large plates or flakes. Young plants and coppice regrowth have egg-shaped leaves that are a lighter shade of green on the lower side, long and wide. Adult leaves are lance-shaped to curved, dark green on the upper surface, paler below, long and wide, tapering to a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils in groups of seven on a flattened, unbranched peduncle long, the individual buds sessile or a pedicels up to long. Mature buds are oval to diamond-shaped, long and wide with a conical operculum. Flowering has been recorded in November and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody, conical to cup-shaped capsule long and wide with the valves protruding prominently above the rim of the fruit.

Taxonomy and naming

This eucalypt was first formally described in 1923 by Joseph Maiden who gave it the name Eucalyptus propinqua var. major and published the description in his book A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus. In 1934, William Blakely raised the variety to species status as Eucalyptus major, publishing the change in his book A Key to the Eucalypts. The specific epithet is a Latin word meaning "greater".

Distribution and habitat

The grey gum grows in tall forest in coastal areas and nearby hills in south-eastern Queensland, south from the Blackdown Tableland to far northern New South Wales.

Conservation status

This eucalypt is classified as "least concern" in Queensland under the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.