Flora of New Zealand Series

Large tree; bark either peeling in ribbons to expose completely smooth, white to grey trunk, or persistent, rough and hard in lower part. Juvenile lvs opposite, sessile, lanceolate or lanceolate-ovate; base cordate. Adult lvs with petiole 5-15 mm long; lamina 6-20 × 0.8-2 cm, linear or linear-lanceolate, generally ± falcate, concolorous, subcoriaceous; marginal vein distinct; lateral veins diverging at c. 45° from midrib; base cuneate, symmetric; apex finely acuminate. Fls axillary, in clusters of 3; peduncles c. 5 mm long, subterete or flattened; pedicels to 3 mm long. Buds 5-8 mm long, conic-ovate, green, obtuse or subacute; operculum nearly = hypanthium. Stamens white; anthers oblong. Fr. pedicellate or subsessile, 5-7.5 × 5-7 mm, globular or broadly turbinate; valves 3-4, slightly to prominently exserted; disc 1-1.5 mm wide, prominent, convex.

N.: particularly inland parts; S.: many localities.

S.E. Australia 1957

Regenerating in the vicinity of planted trees, especially after fire, sometimes in scrub.

FL Jul-Apr.

E. viminalis is widely cultivated in shelter belts and as isolated trees around farms and homesteads. It varies considerably in N.Z., especially in the degree it retains rough bark on the trunk, and in capsule size and the amount the valves are exserted. In many areas the trees are badly attacked by phytophagous Coleoptera. Trees with more than 3 fls per umbel are fairly common in cultivation (some of these are E. viminalis subsp. cygnetensis Boomsma), as are ones with a ± conic capsule. In Australia this sp. is called manna gum on account of a sweetish substance sometimes exuding from the bark.