Eucalyptus umbra


Eucalyptus umbra, known as the broad-leaved white mahogany, is a species of small to medium-sized tree that is endemic to northern New South Wales. It has rough, fibrous to stringy bark on the trunk and branches, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven to fifteen, white flowers and cup-shaped to hemispherical fruit.

Description

Eucalyptus umbra is a tree that typically grows to a height of and forms a lignotuber. Young plants and coppice regrowth have sessile leaves that are broadly egg-shaped to lance shaped, long, wide, held horizontally and arranged in opposite pairs with the bases surrounding the stem. Adult leaves are arranged alternately, the same shade of green on both sides, lance-shaped to curved, long and wide, tapering to a petiole long. The flower buds are mostly arranged in panicles on the ends of branchlets on a peduncle long, the individual buds on pedicels long. Mature buds are oval, about long and wide with a conical to beaked operculum. Flowering occurs from September to February and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody cup-shaped to hemispherical capsule long and wide with the valves near rim level or below it.

Taxonomy and naming

Eucalyptus umbra was first formally described in 1901 by Richard Thomas Baker in Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. The specific epithet is a Latin word meaning "shade" or "shadow", possibly referring to the shade provided by the tree.

Distribution and habitat

The broad-leaved white mahogany occurs in the high rainfall coastal areas of New South Wales between Sydney and Grafton. It grows in dry sclerophyll forest or woodland, usually on poor shallow dry soils. It differs from the white mahogany of coastal Queensland in having broader juvenile leaves.
Eucalyptus umbra is part of the white mahogany group as recognised by Ken Hill. Others in the group include E. acmenoides, E. mediocris, E. carnea, E. apothalassica, E. helidonica, E. psammitica and E. latisinensis.