Eucalyptus decurva


Eucalyptus decurva, commonly known as the slender mallee, is a species of mallee that is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It has smooth whitish bark, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, pendulous flower buds arranged in groups of seven, white flowers and pendulous, more or less spherical fruit.

Description

Eucalyptus decurva is a mallee that typically grows to a height of and forms a lignotuber. The bark is smooth, white-gray, salmon to yellow-green and sometimes powdery. Young plants and coppice regrowth have dull greyish green leaves arranged in opposite pairs, oblong to elliptic or egg-shaped, long and wide. Adult leaves are arranged alternately, glossy green, lance-shaped to curved, long and wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are pendulous and arranged in leaf s in groups of seven on a peduncle long, the individual buds on a pedicel long. Mature buds are more or less cylindrical to pear-shaped, long and wide. Flowering occurs between April to October and the flowers are white to pale pink. The fruit is a pendulous, woody, more or less spherical capsule long and wide on a pedicel long.

Taxonomy and naming

Eucalyptus decurva was first formally described in 1863 by Ferdinand von Mueller from a specimen collected by George Maxwell near the Porongurups and the description was published in Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae. The specific epithet is a Latin word meaning "down-curved", referring to the flower buds.

Distribution and habitat

Slender mallee grows in sandy and lateritic soils in hilly coastal and near-coastal areas, mostly between the Stirling Range and Esperance but with disjunct populations near Perth.