Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) • Earth.com

Eucalyptus platyphylla

(Eucalyptus platyphylla)

galery
en

Description

Tree to c. 20 m tall, often deciduous during the hotter drier months prior to the wet season. Forming a lignotuber. Bark smooth and sometimes powdery, new bark pale pink to creamy-white to greenish-white, maturing to white and weathering to grey or reddish brown just before decortication. Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stems square to round in cross-section, not glaucous; juvenile leaves always petiolate, sub-opposite to alternate, deltoid, 9–20 cm long, 6–16.5 cm wide, base broadly lobed to truncate to rounded, green. Adult leaves alternate, petioles 2.5–7 cm long; blade orbicular to cordate to ovate to rarely broadly lanceolate, 5–21 cm long, 3.5–12 cm wide, base truncate to rounded to tapering to petiole, margin entire, apex pointed to rounded, concolorous, dull grey-green to green, side-veins acute or at a wider angle than 45° to the midrib, reticulation very dense, intramarginal vein present, oil glands small, mostly intersectional, rarely island. Inflorescence axillary unbranched, peduncles 0.3–0.8 cm long, buds per umbel 7, sessile to shortly pedicellate (pedicels 0–0.2(0.6) cm long). Mature buds obovoid to globular, 0.6–0.9 cm long, 0.5–0.7 cm wide, scar present, operculum rounded to conical (0.25–0.5 cm long), hypanthium sometimes with two longitudinal ridges, stamens irregularly flexed, anthers oblong, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, style long and straight, stigma blunt, locules 4, the placentae each with 6 or more vertical rows of ovules. Flowers white. Fruit sessile to shortly pedicellate (pedicels 0–0.3 cm long), obconical to hemispherical, non-glaucous, 0.3–0.6 cm long, 0.6–1 cm wide, disc raised and annular, valves 4, exserted or near the rim. Seeds brown, 1.5–2 mm long, ± flattened ovoid to rarely pyramidal, dorsal surface shallowly reticulate, edge of seed with small sharp teeth, hilum ventral.

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum:
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order:Myrtales
Family:Myrtaceae
Genus:Eucalyptus
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