Flora of New Zealand Series

Large tree; bark fibrous, forming a stocking extending to c. 1/2 way up trunk or rarely further; upper trunk and branches smooth, whitish, with bark peeling in long strips. Juvenile lvs similar to adult but opposite for 2-3 pairs, ± ovate-falcate and conspicuously asymmetric. Adult lvs with petiole 7-20 mm long; lamina 7-20 × 2-6 cm, lanceolate, falcate, bright green, coriaceous, with lateral veins diverging from midrib at 30-40°; base ± oblique; apex acuminate. Umbels in axillary pairs, each of 7 or more fls; peduncles often angular and somewhat flattened, to c. 1.5 cm long; pedicels very short. Buds to c. 10 mm long, conic to clavate, green, acute; operculum slightly < hypanthium, hemispheric, acute. Stamens white; anthers reniform. Fr. pedicellate, 6-8 × 5-7 mm, obconic or turbinate, valves 3, ± included; disc flat, level with rim of capsule or slightly sunken.

N.; S.: scattered localities from Auckland southwards, especially Waitati, Otago.

Victoria, Tasmania 1957

Scrubland near planations.

FL Nov-Mar.

E. regnans is a widely planted sp. in cooler districts where it is grown on a minor scale in timber plantations. At Waitati, Weston, G. C., Exotic Forest Trees in New Zealand (1957), recorded 80 acres of self-sown trees with regeneration in the surrounding scrub. E. regnans is one of the ashes and hybridises naturally with E. obliqua. Typically, the different bark features, umbels in pairs in E. regnans (solitary in E. obliqua), and size and disc shape of the capsule distinguish them. In Victoria E. regnans is known as mountain ash, and in Tasmania as swamp gum.