Eucalyptus fitzgeraldii

Eucalyptus fitzgeraldii, commonly known as the broad-leaved box or the paper-barked box, is a tree that is endemic to Western Australia. It has rough, flaky bark, flower buds arranged in groups of seven and bell-shaped to urn-shaped fruit.

Description

Eucalyptus fitzgeraldii is a tree that typically grows to a height of and has rough, grey, fibrous or flaky bark that is shed in papery flakes. Adult leaves are egg-shaped to more or less round, glossy when fresh, up to long and wide on a petiole up to long. The flower buds are arranged in groups of seven on a peduncle long, the individual buds on pedicels about long. Mature buds have a conical to bell-shaped floral cup long and wide with a conical to hemispherical operculum long and wide. Flowering occurs between August and September and the flowers are whitish cream.

Taxonomy

Eucalyptus fitzgeraldii was first formally described in 1934 by William Blakely from a specimen collected between Tabletop Mountain and the Artesian Range near the Charnley River by William Vincent Fitzgerald. The specific epithet honours the collector of the type specimen.

Distribution

The broad-leaved box is found on rocky hillsides and plains in the northern Kimberley region of Western Australia where it grows in clay soils around basalt or dolerite.

Conservation status

This eucalypt is classified as "Priority Two" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife meaning that it is poorly known and from only one or a few locations.