Eucalyptus melliodora

For other uses, see Yellow Box (disambiguation).
Yellow Box
Eucalyptus melliodora, flowers & leaves
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Myrtales
Family: Myrtaceae
Genus: Eucalyptus
Species: E. melliodora
Binomial name
Eucalyptus melliodora
A.Cunn. ex Schauer[1]
E. melliodora, field distribution

Eucalyptus melliodora, commonly known as Yellow Box,[2] is a medium-sized to occasionally tall eucalypt. The bark is variable ranging from smooth with an irregular, short stocking, to covering most of the trunk, fibrous, dense or loosely held, grey, yellow or red-brown, occasionally very coarse, thick, dark brown to black; shedding from the upper limbs to leave a smooth, white or yellowish surface.

Species description

Leaves are stalked (with petiole), narrow-lanceolate to lanceolate, to 14 x 1.8 cm, concolorous, dull, light green or slate grey. The intramarginal vein (obvious on most eucalypt leaves as the leaf vein that lies close to the leaf margin in a circumferential way) is markedly distant from the leaf margin in this species. This occurs in both adult and juvenile leaves.[3]

The tree is widely distributed on the eastern plains and tablelands from western Victoria, New South Wales to south-central Queensland.

E. melliodora is considered to be the best native tree for honey production, the honey produced has a delightful golden colour and an excellent taste. The timber is pale brown, dense and heavy (about 1100 kg/m3), resistant to decay and has been used for sleepers, posts, poles and bridges. It is not known as a furniture timber.

It is associated with inland grey box, fuzzy box (E. conica), white box (E. albens), pilliga grey box (E. pilligaensis), red ironbark (E. sideroxylon), narrow-leaved ironbark (E. crebra), Blakely's red gum (E. blakelyi), apple species (Angophora), black cypress (Callitris endlicheri), white cypress (Callitris glaucophylla), kurrajong (Brachychiton populneus) and wattles (Acacia) species.[4]

Pop culture references

In the 1985 Australian film Bliss, the Yellow Box is the tree planted as "the letter that took eight years to deliver".

References

  1. ↑ "Eucalyptus melliodora". APNI. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  2. ↑ Costermans, L.F. (1981). Treesa of Victoria. Melbourne: Author. ISBN 0-9599105-1-4.
  3. ↑ Brooker & Kleinig, Eucalyptus, An illustrated guide to identification, Reed Books, Melbourne, 1996
  4. ↑ Boland, Douglas J.; Brooker, M. Ian H.; Chippendale, G. M.; McDonald, Maurice W. (2006). Forest trees of Australia. Collingwood, Victoria: CSIRO Publishing. p. 464. ISBN 0-643-06969-0.

Further reading

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