Sydney red gum

Description

Angophora costata, commonly known as Sydney red gum, rusty gum or smooth-barked apple, is a species of tree that is endemic to eastern Australia. Reaching 30 m (100 ft) in height, the species has distinctive smooth bark that is pinkish or orange-brown when new and fades to grey with age. Its lance-shaped leaves are arranged in opposite pairs along the stems, with white or creamy white flowers appearing from October to December. The flower buds are usually arranged in groups of three, followed by ribbed, oval or bell-shaped fruit. Angophora costata is a tree that typically grows to a height of 30 m (100 ft) and forms a lignotuber. It has smooth pinkish or orange-brown bark that weathers to grey and is shed in small scales. Young plants and coppice regrowth have sessile, elliptical to egg-shaped leaves arranged in opposite pairs with a stem-clasping base, 60–125 mm (2.5–5 in) long and 20–65 mm (0.79–2.6 in) wide. Adult leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, glossy green but paler on the lower surface, lance-shaped or curved, 70–190 mm (2.8–7.5 in) long and 12–35 mm (0.47–1.38 in) wide on a petiole 9–25 mm (0.35–0.98 in) long. New leaf growth is strongly tinted with red. The flower buds are arranged on the ends of branchlets on a branched peduncle 3–25 mm (0.12–0.98 in) long, each branch of the peduncle with usually three buds on pedicels 3–15 mm (0.12–0.59 in) long. Mature buds are oval to globe-shaped, up to 10 mm (0.39 in) long and 11 mm (0.43 in) wide. There are five sepals up to 3 mm (0.12 in) long and the petals are white to creamy white with a green keel, 3–5 mm (0.12–0.20 in) long and 3–6 mm (0.12–0.24 in) wide. Flowering occurs from October to December. The fruit is a oval or bell-shaped capsule up to 20 mm (0.79 in) long and wide. New seedlings have petiolate round cotyledon leaves 1.5 cm wide and long. Angophora costata grows in sandy soil, often over sandstone and occurs naturally in Queensland and New South Wales. It is widely distributed in south-eastern Queensland and disjunctly in the White Mountains National Park. In New South Wales it mainly occurs in coastal areas south from Coffs Harbour to Narooma and as far west as the Blue Mountains.