Eucalyptus croajingolensis
L.A.S.Johnson & K.D.Hill Gippsland PeppermintTree to 30 m tall; bark rough over trunk and larger branches, fibrous. Juvenile leaves sessile, opposite for many pairs, oblong-elliptic, to 8 cm long, 3.5 cm wide, green to slightly glaucous; adult leaves petiolate, alternate, broadly lanceolate to lanceolate, 8–12 cm long, 1.2–2 cm wide, concolorous, dull bluish-grey, rarely green; reticulation sparse, with numerous island oil glands. Inflorescences axillary, unbranched; peduncles to 1.5 cm long, 11–20(or more)-flowered; buds usually glaucous, pedicellate, clavate, to 0.5 cm long, 0.3 cm diam., no scar (single operculum); operculum hemispherical to conical; stamens mostly inflexed; anthers dorsifixed, reniform; ovules in 2 vertical rows; flowers white. Fruit pedicellate, truncate-globose, to 0.6 cm long, 0.6 cm diam.; disc level; valves 3 or 4, rim level; seed dark brown to blackish, glossy, smooth, pyramidal but distorted by one curved face, hilum terminal. Flowers Dec.–Jan.
GipP, EGL, EGU, HSF, HNF, Strz, MonT, HFE, VAlp. Also NSW. The distribution of this taxon is imperfectly known. In Victoria it occurs mostly south of the Great Dividing Range, east from Mt Skene and Mt Useful, where it occurs occasionally in montane forests, but most commonly in moist forest east from Bairnsdale. However, it is also found east of Marysville where it occupies an altitudinal position higher than the (there) valley-dwelling Eucalyptus radiata. North of Yarram E. croajingolensis occurs on white sand with Banksia serrata.
Notable for the crown of thin, bluish, somewhat broad (cf. E. radiata) leaves and glaucescence of the buds and fruits. Juvenile leaves are broadly lanceolate but narrower than those of E. dives. Saplings are often pendulous. Non-glaucous forms of this taxon are difficult to tell from E. radiata, leaf width and distribution being the best guide. Western populations of E. croajingolensis are less glaucous.
Brooker, M.I.H.; Slee, A.V. (1996). Eucalyptus. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 946–1009. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
