Eucalyptus leptopoda, commonly known as the Tammin mallee[2] or Merredin mallee,[3]: A2 is a species of mallee or rarely a tree, that is endemic to Western Australia. It has smooth mottled grey or brownish bark, sometimes with rough bark near the base, linear to curved adult leaves, flower buds usually in groups of seven and eleven, creamy white flowers and hemispherical to flattened spherical fruit.
flower budsfruit
Description
Eucalyptus leptopoda is a mallee, or occasionally a tree, that typically grows to a height of 1 to 8 metres (3 to 26 ft) and forms a lignotuber. It has smooth grey or grey-brown bark, sometimes with flaky or fibrous bark near the base. Young plants and coppice regrowth have leaves that are arranged alternately, dull greenish, linear to narrow lance-shaped, 50–130 mm (2.0–5.1 in) long and 4–10 mm (0.16–0.39 in) wide on a short petiole. Adult leaves are arranged alternately, the same dull, green or grey-green on both sides, usually linear or curved, 75–125 mm (3.0–4.9 in) long and 6–15 mm (0.24–0.59 in) wide tapering to a petiole 5–18 mm (0.20–0.71 in) long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils in groups of between seven and eleven, on an unbranched peduncle 8–15 mm (0.31–0.59 in) long, the individual buds on pedicels 5–10 mm (0.20–0.39 in) long. Mature buds are oval to more or less spherical, 8–11 mm (0.31–0.43 in) long and about 5 mm (0.20 in) wide with a beaked operculum. It blooms between September and March producing white-cream-yellow coloured flowers. The fruit is a hemispherical to flattened spherical capsule, 4–7 mm (0.16–0.28 in) long and 6–10 mm (0.24–0.39 in) wide with the valves protruding above the rim.[2][4][5]
Eucalyptus leptopoda subsp. arctata L.A.S.Johnson & K.D.Hill[10] has linear leaves and the disc of the fruit steeply raised;
Eucalyptus leptopoda subsp. elevata L.A.S.Johnson & K.D.Hill[11] has lance-shaped leaves and the disc of the fruit steeply raised;
Eucalyptus leptopoda Benth. subsp. leptopoda[12] usually has more than 7 flower buds in a group and the disc of the fruit flat or rounded;
Eucalyptus leptopoda subsp. subluta L.A.S.Johnson & K.D.Hill[13] usually has only seven flower buds in a group and the disc of the fruit flat or rounded.[9]
Distribution
The Tammin mallee is endemic to the Mid West, Wheatbelt and western parts of the Goldfields-Esperance regions in Western Australia where it is commonly found on sand plains, dunes and rises growing in sandy or loamy soils sometimes containing gravel, over and around areas of laterite.[2]
^Chippendale, George M. "Eucalyptus leptopoda". Flora of Australia. Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of the Environment and Energy, Canberra. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
^Bentham, George; von Mueller, Ferdinand (1867). Flora Australiensis. Vol. 3. London: Lovell Reeve & Co. pp. 238–239. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
^Francis Aubie Sharr (2019). Western Australian Plant Names and their Meanings. Kardinya, Western Australia: Four Gables Press. pp. 238–239. ISBN9780958034180.
^ abJophnson, Lawrence A.S.; Hill, Kenneth D. (1992). "Systematic studies in the eucalypts - 5. New taxa and combination in Eucalyptus (Myrtaceae) in Western Australia". Telopea. 4 (4): 617–622.
