Eucalyptus pruiniramis, commonly known as Jingymia gum or midlands gum[1] is a species of mallee or tree that is endemic to a small area of Western Australia. It usually has rough bark on the lower half of the trunk, smooth bark above, dull green, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of between seven and eleven, white flowers and cylindrical to cup-shaped fruit.
Eucalyptus pruiniramis is a mallee, sometimes a small straggly tree, that typically grows to a height of and forms a lignotuber. It has smooth greyish or blackish bark, usually with rough fibrous bark on the lower half of the trunk. Young plants have stems that are square in cross-section and leaves that are greyish green, broadly egg-shaped to round, long and wide. Adult leaves are the same shade of dull green on both sides, lance-shaped, long and wide, tapering to a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils in groups of seven, nine or eleven on a flattened, unbranched peduncle long, the individual buds on pedicels long. Mature buds are broadly spindle-shaped to oval, long and wide with a conical operculum. Flowering occurs in summer and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody, cylindrical to cup-shaped capsule long and wide with the valves near rim level.[2] [3]
Eucalyptus pruiniramis was first formally described in 1992 by Lawrie Johnson and Ken Hill in the journal Telopea.[4] The specific epithet (pruiniramis) is from Latin, meaning "rime" or "hoar-frost" and "-of a branch", referring to the white, waxy covering on the branches.[5]
Jingymia mallee grows in low mallee woodland on rocky hillsides between Mogumber and Arrino. It is only known from nine populations with a total of about 58 plants and only one population is in a reserve.
This mallee is listed as "endangered" under the Australian Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and as "Threatened Flora (Declared Rare Flora — Extant)" by the Department of Environment and Conservation (Western Australia). The main threats to the species are road and fence maintenance, gravel extraction, grazing and weed infestation.