Eucalyptus beardiana, commonly known as Beard's mallee,[3] is a mallee that is endemic to Western Australia. It has smooth pinkish bark, narrow lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds usually in groups of nine, pale yellow flowers and down-turned, hemispherical fruit.
E. beardiana flower budsE. beardiana flowersE. beardiana fruit
Description
Eucalyptus beardiana is a spreading mallee that typically grows to a height of 3 to 5 metres (10 to 16 ft) and forms a lignotuber. It has smooth grey, cream-cloloured or pinkish bark from the trunk to the thinnest branches. Young plants and coppice regrowth have dull, narrow lance-shaped leaves 20–90 mm (0.79–3.5 in) long and 5–35 mm (0.2–1 in) wide and have a petiole. Adult leaves are lance-shaped to curved, mostly 75–130 mm (3.0–5.1 in) long and 7–15 mm (0.3–0.6 in) wide, narrowing at the base to a petiole 10–23 mm (0.39–0.91 in) long.[4][5][6]
The flowers are usually borne in groups of nine, rarely eleven, in leaf axils on an unbranched peduncle 20–30 mm (0.8–1 in) long, the individual flowers on a pedicel 12–14 mm (0.5–0.6 in) long. Mature buds are oval, 19–22 mm (0.7–0.9 in) long and 7–9 mm (0.3–0.4 in) wide with a finely beaked operculum about 14 mm (0.6 in) long. Flowering mainly occurs from August to September and the flowers are pale yellow to creamy white. The fruit that follows is a woody, hemispherical capsule 7 to 10 mm (0.28 to 0.39 in) long and 9 to 13 mm (0.35 to 0.51 in) with a slightly flared rim.[4][5][6][3]
Taxonomy and naming
Eucalyptus beardiana was first formally described in 1978 by Ian Brooker and Donald Blaxell who published the description in the journal Nuytsia from a specimen collected near Shark Bay.[7] The specific epithet (beardiana) honours John Stanley Beard. The authors considered it appropriate that "his long association with the botany of Western Australia should be perpetuated by a species endemic to the state".[6]
^ ab"Eucalyptus beardiana". Euclid: Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
^ abChippendale, George M. "Eucalyptus beardiana". Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of the Environment and Energy, Canberra. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
^ abcBrooker, M. Ian (1978). "Blaxell". Donald F. 2 (4): 220–222. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
