Eucalyptus sphaerocarpa, commonly known as the Blackdown stringybark,[1] is a species of tall forest tree that is endemic to Queensland. It has rough, stringy bark on the trunk and branches, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, nine or eleven, white flowers and shortened spherical fruit.
Eucalyptus sphaerocarpa is a tree that typically grows to a height of and forms a lignotuber. It has rough, grey to brownish, stringy bark on the trunk and branches. Young plants and coppice regrowth have stems that are square in cross-section and dull greyish green leaves that are paler on the lower surface, elliptic to lance-shaped, long and wide. Adult leaves are the same shade of green to greyish on both sides, lance-shaped to curved, 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 oval, long and wide with a conical operculum. Flowering has been recorded in September and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody, shortened spherical capsule long and wide with the valves below rim level.[2]
Eucalyptus sphaerocarpa was first formally described in 1972 by Lawrie Johnson and Donald Blaxell in Contributions from the New South Wales Herbarium from specimens collected from the Blackdown Tableland.[3] The specific epithet (sphaerocarpa) is derived from ancient Greek words meaning "spherical" and "fruit", referring to the shape of the fruit.[4]
Blackdown stringybark grows in tall, open forest and is restricted to the Blackdown Tableland west of Rockhampton.
This eucalypt is classified as "least concern" under the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.[5]
Farm Forestry New Zealand, Eucalyptus sphaerocarpa, my favourite durable timber species