Eucalyptus pulchella Desf.
Small to large tree (up to c. 30 m high in cultivation), often with several trunks; bark thin and always deciduous, exposing the smooth, mottled, whitish or pale grey trunks. Lvs peppermint-scented; juvenile c. opposite for 10 pairs, sessile, ± narrow-lanceolate; base symmetric. Adult lvs with petiole < 7 mm long; lamina 4-9 × 0.3-0.5-(0.7) cm, linear or narrow-linear, green, subcoriaceous, with inconspicuous venation; base attenuate, symmetric; apex shortly aristate. Umbels axillary, usually of 7-13 fls; peduncle < 5 mm long, angular; pedicels very short. Buds < 4.5 mm long, clavate, green; operculum hemispheric, < hypanthium, apiculate or acute. Stamens white; anthers reniform. Fr. subsessile, 5-5.5 × 5-6.5 mm, broadly pyriform to almost hemispheric; valves 4, ± level with capsule rim; disc 1-1.5 mm wide, flat or ± convex.
N.: Glen Eden, Waikumete Cemetery (Auckland), Whakarewarewa State Forest.
Tasmania 1988
Roadside banks and in scrub around plantations.
FL Jul-Mar.
E. pulchella is one of the commonest peppermint eucalypts cultivated in N.Z.; it is an attractive ornamental, and is hardy in all lowland areas, and many upland parts of the C. North Id. The combination of linear, peppermint-scented lvs, smooth greyish or whitish trunk and clusters of small capsules distinguish it from other peppermints in N.Z. including another Tasmanian sp., E. amygdalina Labill., black peppermint, which is commonly cultivated and sometimes confused with E. pulchella. E. pulchella has previously been known in N.Z. as E. linearis, and in Tasmania is known by the common name of white peppermint.
