Eucalyptus largeana


Eucalyptus largeana, commonly known as the Craven grey box, is a species of medium-sized to tall tree that is endemic to a restricted area of New South Wales. It has rough, fibrous or flaky bark on the trunk and larger branches, smooth greyish bark above, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, white flowers and cup-shaped or barrel-shaped fruit.

Description

Eucalyptus largeana is a tree that typically grows to a height of and forms a lignotuber. It has rough, fibrous or flaky bark on the trunk, sometimes on the larger branches, smooth white or grey bark above. Young plants and coppice regrowth have stems that are more or less square in cross-section and lance-shaped to egg-shaped, petiolate leaves that are long and wide. Adult leaves are the same shade of green on both sides, lance-shaped to curved, long and wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils and on the ends of branchlets on a branched peduncle long. Each branch of the peduncle has groups of seven buds, the individual buds on pedicels long. Mature buds are green, oval, about long and wide with a conical operculum. The flowers are white and the fruit is a woody pear-shaped, cup-shaped or barrel-shaped capsule long and wide with the valves below the level of the rim.

Taxonomy and naming

Eucalyptus largeana was first formally described in 1934 by William Blakely from a specimen collected by Wilfred Alexander de Beuzeville and Richard Large in the "Avon State Forest, Craven". The description was published in Blakely's book, A Key to the Eucalypts. The specific epithet honours Richard Large.

Distribution and habitat

Craven grey box grows on slopes and ridges in wet forest on the near-coastal ranges of New South Wales between the Hunter River and the headwaters of the Macleay and Manning Rivers.