Botanical art
Prior names
Eucalyptus ochrophylla
Common names
Great Victoria Desert Mallee
Victoria Desert Mallee
Etymology
Eucalyptus from the Greek 'eu' meaning well and 'calyptos' meaning covered; alluding to the cap or lid which covers the stamens in the bud. Concinna from the Latin 'concinnus' meaning neat, pretty; referring to the species habit and overall appearance.
Distribution and status
Found in the western part of South Australia from Lake Gairdner to the border, growing on red or white sand on plains and sand dunes in open mallee shrubland. Also found in Western Australia. Native. Common in South Australia. Common in Western Australia.
Herbarium regions: North Western, Nullarbor, Gairdner-Torrens, Eyre Peninsula
NRM regions: Alinytjara Wilurara, Eyre Peninsula, South Australian Arid Lands
AVH map: SA distribution map (external link)
Plant description
Multi-stemmed mallee to 8 m tall with rough, hard, fibrous-flaky, grey-brown bark below and smooth, orange-tan to pale grey to creamy white bark above. Juvenile leaves lanceolate to broad-lanceolate, dull, green to blue-green. Adult leaves to 130 mm long and 20 mm wide, lanceolate, highly glossy, green. Flowers axillary in umbels of 7-11 flowers. Buds to 12 mm long and 9 mm wide, with smooth or slightly angled base, bud-cap flattened, smooth or ribbed shorter than the bud-base. Flowers white appearing spasmodically depending on rainfall. Fruits are woody cup-shaped to cone-shaped fruit to 11 mm long and 10 mm wide, disc level to descending, valves 3 or 4 around rim level. Seeds are brown ovoid seed to 2 mm long and 1.3 mm wide, with deeply pitted surface. Seed embryo type is folded.
Seed collection and propagation
Collect seeds between January and December. Collect mature fruits that are dark and hard (difficult to break with a finger nail), with the valves un-open any time of year. Leave the fruits in a breathable container in a dry room for one to two weeks. This allows the valves on the fruit to open and release the seeds. Separate the seeds by placing all the materials into a bucket and shaking it to dislodge the seeds. Pass the material through a sieve to separate the unwanted material. The finer material will contain both seeds (soft) and frass (hard) usually distinguishable from each other but can be very similar in shape and colour. With finer sieves, the seeds can be separated from the frass but this is not essential for storage or propagation. Store the seeds with a desiccant such as dried silica beads or dry rice, in an air tight container in a cool and dry place. From two collections, the seed viability were high, ranging from 80% to 100%. Seeds are non-dormant, viable seed should germinate readily.
Location | No. of seeds (weight grams) | Number of plants | Date collected | Collection number Collection location | Date stored | % Viability | Storage temperature |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
BGA MSB | 11,000 (8.7 g) 11,000 (8.7 g) | 50+ | 7-Nov-2005 | MKJ103 Gairdner-Torrens | 8-Aug-2006 | 100% | -18°C |
BGA | 14,700 (26.34 g) | 45 | 16-May-2014 | TST1195 North Western | 24-Mar-2015 | 80% | -18°C |