Eucalyptus cunninghamii

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Cliff mallee ash (Eucalyptus cunninghamii) is a small mallee tree native only to the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. It typically grows up to about 2 meters tall and forms a lignotuber, a small woody swelling at ground level that helps the plant regrow after fire. The bark is smooth and grey, shedding in ribbons and often showing insect scribbles.

Young plants have sessile, linear to narrow lance-shaped leaves about 50–100 mm long and 3–5 mm wide. Adult leaves are glossy green and narrow lance-shaped, 30–100 mm long and 3–8 mm wide, with a short stalk about 2–5 mm long.

Flowers appear in groups of seven or nine on an unbranched stalk 3–8 mm long, with each bud on a 2–4 mm pedicel. Mature buds are green or pinkish, oval to club-shaped, 4–6 mm long and about 3 mm wide, usually warty. Flowers are white and bloom from September to December.

The fruit is a woody capsule that can be urn-shaped, barrel-shaped, or spherical, 5–8 mm long and 5–7 mm wide, on a 1–2 mm pedicel, with the valves enclosed.

Taxonomy history: Allan Cunningham first described the species in 1825 as Eucalyptus microphylla, but that name was illegitimate because it was already used for another species. In 1830, Robert Sweet renamed it Eucalyptus cunninghamii in honor of Cunningham.

Habitat: Eucalyptus cunninghamii is restricted to the Blue Mountains, where it grows in shallow sandstone-derived soils on cliff edges and the upper edges of valleys.