Kingdom Plantae Family Myrtaceae Scientific name Eucalyptus drummondii | Order Myrtales Genus Eucalyptus Rank Species | |
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Similar Eucalyptus doratoxylon, Eucalyptus olsenii, Eucalyptus foecunda, Eucalyptus dura, Eucalyptus triflora | ||
Eucalyptus drummondii (Drummond's Gum, Drummond's Mallee) is a mallee eucalypt native to southwest Western Australia.
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Description
It grows as a mallee or tree up to 9 meters tall, with smooth, powdery, bark that is white, pink or grey in colour. Leaves at grey-green in colour. The flowers are white, and arise from pink buds on stems up to 2 centimetres long. Flower occur in clusters of up to seven.
Taxonomy
It was first published by George Bentham in 1867, in Volume 3 of his Flora Australiensis. Bentham based the species on a specimen collected "[b]etween Swan River and King George's Sound" by James Drummond in 1842. In 1913, Joseph Henry Maiden demoted it to a variety of Eucalyptus oldfieldii, but this is no longer upheld.
No infraspecific taxa have been published, though a number of subspecies have been tentatively identified. Some have been abandoned without ever being published, but two are still tentatively recognised; these are referred to by the informal manuscript names E. drummondii subsp. Moora (D. Nicolle 1653) and E. drummondii subsp. York (D. Nicolle & M. French DN 3684). And of course, should either of these be published in future, this would also invoke the autonymic subspecies.
Distribution and habitat
E. drummondii occurs throughout the Swan Coastal Plain and Jarrah Forest regions of the Southwest Botanical Province, and also extents somewhat into the Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains and Warren regions. It is often found on outcrops of laterite.