Lemon-scented gum

Description

Corymbia citriodora, commonly known as lemon-scented gum and other common names,is a species of tall tree that is endemic to north-eastern Australia. It has smooth white to pink bark, narrow lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of three, white flowers and urn-shaped or barrel-shaped fruit. Corymbia citriodora is a tree that typically grows to a height of 25–40 m (82–131 ft), sometimes to 50 m (160 ft) and forms a lignotuber. It has smooth, pale, uniform or slightly mottled, white to pink or coppery bark that is shed in thin flakes. Young plants and coppice regrowth have egg-shaped to lance-shaped leaves that are 80–210 mm (3.1–8.3 in) long and 32–80 mm (1.3–3.1 in) wide. Adult leaves are the same shade of glossy green on both sides, often lemon-scented when crushed, narrow lance-shaped to curved, 100–230 mm (3.9–9.1 in) long and 6–28 mm (0.24–1.10 in) wide tapering to a petiole 10–25 mm (0.39–0.98 in) long. The flower buds are borne in leaf axils on a branched peduncle 3–10 mm (0.12–0.39 in) long, each branch with three buds on pedicels 1–6 mm (0.039–0.236 in) long. Mature buds are oval to pear-shaped, 6–10 mm (0.24–0.39 in) long and 5–7 mm (0.20–0.28 in) wide with a rounded, conical or slightly beaked operculum. Flowering occurs in most months and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody urn-shaped or barrel-shaped capsule 8–15 mm (0.31–0.59 in) long and 7–12 mm (0.28–0.47 in) wide with the valves enclosed in the fruit. Lemon-scented gum was first formally described in 1848 by William Jackson Hooker who gave it the name Eucalyptus citriodora in Thomas Mitchell's Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia. In 1995 Ken Hill and Lawrie Johnson changed the name from Eucalyptus citriodora to Corymbia citriodora. The specific epithet (citriodora) is Latin, meaning "lemon-scented". Lemon-scented gum is also commonly known as citron scented gum, citron-scented gum, lemon gum, lemon scented gum, lemonscented gum, spotted gum and lemon eucalyptus. Corymbia citriodora grows in undulating country in open forest and woodland in several disjunct areas in Queensland and as far south as Coffs Harbour in New South Wales. In Queensland it is found as far north as Lakeland Downs and Cooktown and as far inland as Hughenden and Chinchilla.