Yellow gum

Appearance

''Eucalyptus leucoxylon'' is a tree that typically grows to a height of 10–30 m and forms a lignotuber.

It has smooth white, yellow or bluish-grey bark, usually with 0.5–2 m of rough fibrous to flaky bark the base of the trunk. Young plants and coppice regrowth have leaves mostly arranged in opposite pairs, egg-shaped to broadly lance-shaped, 45–105 mm long and 20–73 mm wide.

Adult leaves are arranged alternately, the same slightly glossy shade of green on both sides, lance-shaped to curved, 60–185 mm long and 10–30 mm wide, tapering to a petiole 9–25 mm long.

The flower buds are arranged in groups of three in leaf axils on an unbranched peduncle 4–11 mm long, the individual buds on pedicels 2–14 mm long. Mature buds are oval to diamond-shaped or more or less spherical, 6–17 mm long, 5–7 mm wide with a conical to rounded or beaked operculum.

Flowering has been recorded in most months and the flowers a white, red or pink. The fruit is a woody, cylindrical, barrel-shaped or shortened spherical capsule 6–13 mm long, 6–14 mm wide with the valves enclosed below rim level.

This species is similar to ''E. melliodora'' and ''E. sideroxylon'' subsp. ''sideroxylon'' but differs in having three buds in each group of flowers.

Naming

''Eucalyptus leucoxylon'' was first formally described in 1855 by Ferdinand von Mueller in the ''Transactions and Proceedings of the Victorian Institure for the Advancement of Science''.

Distribution

This eucalypt species is found in Victoria, south-eastern South Australia and far south-western New South Wales. All six subspecies occur in Victoria.

Subspecies ''bellarinensis'' is only known from the Bellarine Peninsula near Ocean Grove and Torquay. Subspecies ''connata'' grows on skeletal soils, mostly in the Brisbane Ranges.

Subspecies ''leucoxylon'' is the most widespread species and occurs in scattered populations across Victoria and in south-eastern South Australia, including on Kangaroo Island where the tallest specimens are found.

Subspecies ''megalocarpa'' is a stunted tree or mallee only found in coastal areas from the far south-east of South Australia to far western Victoria.

Subspecies ''pruinosa'' occurs in drier areas of South Australia, the Wimmera and Goldfields of Victoria and on the Murray River floodplain near Barham in New South Wales.