Eucalyptus pruiniramis

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Eucalyptus pruiniramis, commonly known as Jingymia gum or midlands gum, is a mallee or small tree found only in a small part of Western Australia. It typically grows 2.5–7 meters tall and forms a lignotuber (a woody base that helps it regrow after fire). The upper trunk has smooth greyish or blackish bark, while the lower part is rough.

Young plants have square stems and grey-green, rounded to broadly egg-shaped leaves. Adult leaves are dull green on both sides, lance-shaped, about 85–125 mm long and 15–33 mm wide, with a short stalk. Flower buds appear in groups of seven, nine or eleven in the leaf axils, on a flattened, unbranched stalk 8–20 mm long; each bud sits on a 2–5 mm stalk. Mature buds are broadly spindle-shaped to oval, 11–16 mm long and 5–7 mm wide, with a conical cap. The flowers are white and bloom in summer. The fruit is a woody capsule, cylindrical to cup-shaped, 8–12 mm long and 8–10 mm wide, with the valves at rim level.

The species was first described in 1992 by Lawrie Johnson and Ken Hill in Telopea. The name pruiniramis comes from Latin, meaning “rime” or “hoar-frost” and “of a branch,” referring to the white waxy coating on the branches.

Jingymia gum grows in low mallee woodland on rocky hillsides between Mogumber and Arrino. It is known from about nine populations, totaling around 58 plants, with only one population inside a reserve.

Conservation status: Endangered under the Australian Government EPBC Act and listed as Threatened Flora (Extant) in Western Australia. Threats include road and fence maintenance, gravel extraction, grazing and weed invasion.