Corymbia ferruginea, commonly known as rusty bloodwood,[2] is a species of tree that is endemic to northern Australia. It has rough, tessellated bark on the trunk and branches, a crown of sessile juvenile leaves, flower buds in groups of three or seven, pale creamy yellow flowers and urn-shaped fruit.

Rusty bloodwood
Corymbia ferruginea at Kakadu
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Myrtales
Family: Myrtaceae
Genus: Corymbia
Species:
C. ferruginea
Binomial name
Corymbia ferruginea
Synonyms[1]

Eucalyptus ferruginea Schauer

Description edit

Corymbia ferruginea is a straggly tree that typically grows to a height of 3–12 m (9.8–39.4 ft) and forms a lignotuber. Young plants and coppice regrowth have more or less sessile, rusty green, hairy, broadly lance-shaped to egg-shaped or elliptical leaves that are 60–140 mm (2.4–5.5 in) long and 25–70 mm (0.98–2.76 in) wide. The leaves in the crown of the tree are juvenile leaves that are the same shade of dull green on both sides, with brown hairs along the veins, broadly lance-shaped to egg-shaped or elliptical, 63–180 mm (2.5–7.1 in) long and 30–90 mm (1.2–3.5 in) wide and sessile or on a petiole up to 8 mm (0.31 in) long. The flower buds are arranged on the ends of branchlets of a branched, densely hairy, rusty brown peduncle 4–35 mm (0.16–1.38 in) long, each branch of the peduncle with three or seven buds. The buds are sessile or on pedicels up to 5 mm (0.20 in) long. Mature buds are oval to pear-shaped, 7–14 mm (0.28–0.55 in) long and 5–8 mm (0.20–0.31 in) wide with a rounded operculum. Flowering occurs from January to April and the flowers are pale creamy yellow. The fruit is a woody urn-shaped capsule 18–33 mm (0.71–1.30 in) long and 15–29 mm (0.59–1.14 in) wide with the valves enclosed in the fruit.[3][4][5][6][7]

Taxonomy and naming edit

Rusty bloodwood was first formally described in 1843 by Johannes Conrad Schauer in Walpers' book Repertorium Botanices Systematicae and given the name Eucalyptus ferruginea.[8][9] In 1995, Ken Hill and Lawrie Johnson changed the name to Corymbia ferruginea.[5][10]

In the same journal, Hill and Johnson described two subspecies and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:

  • Corymbia ferruginea (Schauer) K.D.Hill & L.A.S.Johnson subsp. ferruginea;[11]
  • Corymbia ferruginea subsp. stypophylla K.D.Hill & L.A.S.Johnson[12] that differs from the autonym in having small leaves with petioles more than 12 mm (0.47 in) long.[5]

Distribution and habitat edit

Corymbia ferruginea grows in open forest and woodland on shallow, sandstone soils or deep sands from west of Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia then east through the northern part of the Northern Territory to south of Burketown in north-west Queensland.[3][4][5]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Corymbia ferruginea". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  2. ^ Philip A. Clarke (2012). Australian plants as Aboriginal Tools. Rosenberg Publishing. ISBN 9781922013576.
  3. ^ a b "Corymbia ferruginea subsp/ ferruginea". Euclid: Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  4. ^ a b Chippendale, George M. "Eucalyptus ferruginea". Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, Canberra. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d Hill, Kenneth D.; Johnson, Lawrence A.S. (13 December 1995). "Systematic studies in the eucalypts. 7. A revision of the bloodwoods, genus Corymbia (Myrtaceae)". Telopea. 6 (2–3): 340–343. doi:10.7751/telopea19953017.
  6. ^ "Corymbia ferruginea". FloraBase. Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
  7. ^ "Corymbia ferruginea (Schauer) K.D. Hill & L.A.S. Johnson, Telopea 6: 339 (1995)". Eucalink. Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
  8. ^ "Eucalyptus ferruginea". APNI. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  9. ^ Schauer, Johannes Conrad; Walpers, Wilhelm Gerhard (1843). Repertorium Botanices Systematicae. New York: Sumtibus Friderici Hofmeister. p. 926. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  10. ^ "Corymbia ferruginea". APNI. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  11. ^ "Corymbia ferruginea subsp. ferruginea". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  12. ^ "Corymbia ferruginea subsp. stypophylla". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 11 February 2020.