Red-flowered mallee box facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Red-flowered mallee box |
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| Eucalyptus lansdowneana near Gawler | |
| Scientific classification | |
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Eucalyptus
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| Species: |
lansdowneana
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Eucalyptus lansdowneana, often called the crimson mallee or the red-flowered mallee box, is a special type of eucalyptus tree. It has thin stems and often grows in a bushy way. You can only find this plant in a small area of South Australia. It has rough, stringy bark near the bottom, but higher up, the bark is smooth and greyish-white. Its adult leaves are shaped like a spear, and its flower buds grow in groups of seven. The flowers are a bright crimson color, and its fruits look like small barrels.
What it Looks Like
The Red-flowered Mallee Box is a type of mallee plant, which means it usually grows as a shrub or small tree with multiple stems coming from the ground. It typically reaches a height of about 2 to 6 meters (around 6 to 20 feet). This plant also has a special woody swelling underground called a lignotuber. This helps it regrow after fires.
The bark near the bottom of the plant is rough and stringy, going up about 2 meters (6 feet). Above that, the bark is smooth and peels off in short strips, showing a creamy-white color underneath.
Leaves and Flowers
Young plants and new shoots (called coppice regrowth) have leaves that are broadly spear-shaped or egg-shaped. These leaves are about 7 to 10 centimeters (3 to 4 inches) long and 2.5 to 3.5 centimeters (1 to 1.4 inches) wide.
Adult leaves are shiny green and shaped like a spear. They are about 8.5 to 15.5 centimeters (3.3 to 6.1 inches) long and 1.5 to 2.7 centimeters (0.6 to 1.1 inches) wide. Each leaf has a stalk called a petiole, which is about 1 to 2 centimeters (0.4 to 0.8 inches) long.
The flower buds grow in groups of seven. These groups can be found on branched stalks (called peduncles) at the ends of the branches, or on unbranched stalks where the leaves meet the stem. The individual buds either sit directly on the stem (meaning they are sessile) or have very short stalks (called pedicels) up to 3 millimeters long.
Mature buds are oval-shaped, about 7 to 9 millimeters long and 4 to 7 millimeters wide. They have a cap-like structure called an operculum that can be cone-shaped or rounded.
This plant usually flowers between August and October. The flowers are a striking crimson color when they first open, and then they slowly fade to pink.
Fruit
After the flowers, the plant produces woody, barrel-shaped fruits. These fruits are a type of capsule, which means they are dry and open to release seeds. They are about 9 to 12 millimeters long and 7 to 11 millimeters wide. The parts that open to release the seeds (called valves) are located below the rim of the fruit.
How it was Named
The Red-flowered Mallee Box was first officially described in 1891. This was done by two botanists, Ferdinand von Mueller and John Ednie Brown. They wrote about it in a book called The forest flora of South Australia.
The second part of its scientific name, lansdowneana, was chosen to honor Thomas Lansdowne Browne. He was the person who collected the first plant samples (called type specimens) that were used to describe this species.
In 1974, another botanist named Clifford David Boomsma described a subspecies of this plant, calling it Eucalyptus lansdownea subsp. albopurpurea. However, in 2000, Dean Nicolle decided that this subspecies was different enough to be its own species, so he named it Eucalyptus albopurpurea. This related species is generally larger, has wider leaves, and its flowers can be white, pink, or purple, unlike the crimson flowers of Eucalyptus lansdowneana.
Where it Lives
The Crimson Mallee is only found in a specific area: the southwestern part of the Gawler Ranges in South Australia. It grows in areas with mallee vegetation, which is a type of bushland where many multi-stemmed eucalyptus trees grow. You can usually find it on rocky outcrops and the tops of hills.
