Eucalyptus paedoglauca

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Eucalyptus paedoglauca, commonly known as the Mount Stuart ironbark, is a small to medium tree that grows only in a small area of Queensland, Australia. It has rough, dark ironbark, lance-shaped leaves, white flowers, and cup-shaped fruit. It is found on Mount Stuart and a few nearby hills near Townsville.

Description
- Height: about 10–15 meters and it forms a lignotuber (a swelling at the base that helps it regrow after fire).
- Bark: rough dark grey to black ironbark.
- Young leaves: glaucous (bluish-grey) and shaped from broadly lance-style to egg-shaped.
- Adult leaves: dull green on both sides, lance-shaped, 80–140 mm long and 17–32 mm wide.
- Flowers: white, arranged in groups of seven on the ends of branchlets; buds are oval and about 7 mm long.
- Fruit: woody, cup-shaped capsules about 5–7 mm across.

Habitat and status
- The species grows in remnant vegetation on Mount Stuart and a few other nearby hills.
- It is listed as Vulnerable under Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and under Queensland’s Nature Conservation Act.

Taxonomy and name
- Scientific name: Eucalyptus paedoglauca
- Described in 1991 by Lawrie Johnson and Donald Blaxell.
- The name paedoglauca comes from Greek words meaning “child” and “pale blue/grey,” referring to the juvenile leaf color.

Threats
- Main threats include road maintenance in its habitat and inappropriate fire regimes.