Flora of New Zealand Series

Trees, shrubs or mallees, usually glabrous in adult stage. Lvs opposite for at least the first few pairs on juvenile plants, otherwise alternate, with aromatic oil glands. Fls in single or paired, axillary, usually pedunculate umbelliform cymes, or paniculate and terminal, or occasionally solitary. Bracteoles quickly caducous. Hypanthium wholly or partly enclosing ovary; sepals free or fused to form an operculum. Petals 5, always fused to form an operculum shed at anthesis. Stamens numerous, > petals, in 2 or more whorls, free or clustered into 4 groups; anthers versatile, dorsifixed or sub-basifixed and opening by discrete or confluent slits, or ± basifixed and opening by terminal pores; connective often prominent. Ovary 2-several-celled, surrounded by nectary disc; ovules numerous; style minute and inconspicuous or prominent. Fr. ± woody, composed of capsule and hypanthium, usually with loculicidal dehiscence, and teeth of valves included or exserted from hypanthium rim; viable seeds 2- c. 40.

c. 500 spp., mostly Australia, with a very few extending N., 1 to the Philippines. Naturalised spp. 20.

Many eucalypts are cultivated in N.Z., being valued for ornament, timber, shelter belts and windbreaks. Many of the ornamental spp. are from W. and S. Australia, and these are usually less hardy than those from the S.E. and therefore do not regenerate so freely in N.Z. Thus, all those described here are from S.E. Australia and although none are naturalised over a wide area, they are commonly encountered in and around plantations and shelter belts. Two other spp. not closely related to those described have been reported wild, but these records are not substantiated by specimens: E. eugenioides Sieber, white stringybark, and E. radiata Sieber, narrow-leaved peppermint.

Because of the confusion over common names in N.Z. they have only been included at the end of the notes and usually only as they are applied in Australia. Members of this genus are commonly referred to as either eucalypts of gums. Blakely, W. F., A Key to the Eucalypts, ed. 2 (1955), divided the genus according to anther characters; these are little used here because anthers are unavailable for much of the year, whereas fl. buds and frs are present for much of the time. These are illustrated for all the fully naturalised spp. and almost all of the casual spp. (Figs 87, 88, and 89). In addition, vegetative characters, especially bark types, persistence of juvenile lvs, and shape, colour, venation of adult lvs, are important. Because of the lack of adult material from spontaneous trees, most of the descriptions have been drawn up from cultivated ones.

Fig. 87. Fl. buds and capsule of Eucalyptus. A-B E. botryoides; C-D E. delegatensis; E-F E. elata; G-H E. fastigata; I-J E. globulus; K-L E. gunnii; M-N E. macarthurii. © All rights reserved. [Image: 4X6F]

Fig. 88. Fl. buds and capsule of Eucalyptus. A-B E. obliqua; C-D E. ovata; E-F E. pilularis; G-H E. piperita; I-J E. pulchella; K-L E. regnans; M-N E. resinifera; O-P E. saligna. © All rights reserved. [Image: 4X6G]

Fig. 89. Fls buds and capsule of Eucalyptus. A-B E. sieberi; C-D E. tereticornis; E-F E. tenuiramis; G-H E. viminalis. © All rights reserved. [Image: 4X6H]