Kingdom Plantae Family Myrtaceae Scientific name Eucalyptus cloeziana | Order Myrtales Genus Eucalyptus Rank Species | |
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Similar Eucalyptus grandis, Eucalyptus saligna, Eucalyptus urophylla, Eucalyptus tereticornis, Corymbia | ||
Eucalyptus cloeziana, Gympie Messmate, is a small to tall tree with rough bark on most or the whole of the trunk and larger branches. The bark is soft, flaky, tessellated, light brown or yellow-brown, where smooth, greyish white or yellowish above.
Leaves are stalked, lanceolate or curved, discolorous, to 13 x 3 cm, slightly glossy green. White flowers appear in early to late summer. E. cloeziana has a widespread but scattered distribution in Queensland, particularly from east of Tambo to Mundubbera and Gympie, and from west of Townsville to north-west of Cooktown with isolated occurrences in between.
The tree reaches its best development in the Gympie region, where some magnificent forest trees attain heights near 60 metres. in other places it can be a poorly formed tree of only 10–15 metres. The flaky bark can be confused with the yellow bloodwoods, to which it is not related.
The specific name honours Francois Stanislas Cloez (1817-1883), a French chemist, who isolated eucalyptol from eucalyptus leaves and recommended its use for the treatment of bronchitis, coughs, colds and flu.
