Eucalyptus behriana
F.Muell. Bull MalleeMallee to 12 m tall; bark rough, fibrous, over lower part of trunk, dark brown to brown-black; upper trunk and branches smooth, yellowish-green or grey-brown. Juvenile leaves petiolate, alternate, ovate, to 12 cm long, 7 cm wide, dull, blue-green to glaucous; adult leaves petiolate, alternate, broadly lanceolate to ovate, 7–10 cm long, 1.5–3 cm wide, concolorous, glossy, green; intramarginal vein remote from edge; reticulation very dense, with numerous, mostly intersectional oil glands. Inflorescences in leafless, terminal panicles; peduncles to 1 cm long, 3–7-flowered. Young buds sessile, narrowly oblong, becoming shortly pedicellate, clavate, to 0.7 cm long, 0.3 cm diam., scar present; operculum conical; stamens irregularly flexed; anthers adnate, globoid; ovules in 4 vertical rows; flowers white. Fruit sessile or shortly pedicellate, cupular or barrel-shaped, to 0.6 cm long, 0.5 cm diam.; disc descending; valves 4, rim level or below; seed brown, irregularly ovoid and slightly flattened, surface shallowly reticulate, hilum ventral Flowers Sep.–Feb.
LoM, MuM, Wim, VVP, VRiv, MuF, GipP, Gold, CVU, GGr, NIS. Also SA, NSW. Occurs west of a line between Swan Hill, Wedderburn, Huntly and Heathcote, to the South Australian border, with a disjunct population at Long Forest near Bacchus Marsh.
Recognized by the half-barked stems, yellowish-green upper bark, and elongated leafless terminal bud clusters. Unlike many box species in Victoria the outer operculum is shed early. Similar mallees between Dimboola and Lake Hindmarsh along the Wimmera River are fully rough-barked and are notably narrow-leaved with blusih adult leaves and may represent a new taxon.
Brooker, M.I.H.; Slee, A.V. (1996). Eucalyptus. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 946–1009. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
