Eucalyptus ammophila

Eucalyptus ammophila is a mallee that grows to 6 m (20 ft) high, rarely a small, multistemmed tree, and forms a lignotuber. The trunk has rough, fibrous, greyish brown bark and the upper parts of the trunk and the branches have smooth greyish and orange to bronze-coloured bark. Young plants and coppice regrowth have square stems and broad lance-shaped to egg-shaped leaves that are 60–85 mm (2.4–3.3 in) long and 22–36 mm (0.87–1.4 in) wide with a short petiole. Adult leaves are lance-shaped, 65–135 mm (2.6–5.3 in) long and 15–25 mm (0.59–0.98 in) wide with a petiole 7–25 mm (0.28–0.98 in) long. Both sides of the leaf are the same dull green, although bluish green at first.[3][5]

The flowers are arranged in groups of between seven and eleven in leaf axils on a peduncle 5–12 mm (0.2–0.5 in) long, each flower on a pedicel about 2 mm (0.08 in) long. The mature flower buds are oval to spindle-shaped, yellow or cream-coloured, 8–9 mm (0.3–0.4 in) long and about 5 mm (0.2 in) wide. The operculum is cone-shaped and about 6 mm (0.2 in) long. The fruit is a hemispherical capsule 3–5 mm (0.12–0.20 in) long and 6–9 mm (0.24–0.35 in) wide with the four, sometimes five, strongly raised valves.[3][5]

Eucalyptus ammophila was first formally described in 1994 by Ian Brooker and Andrew Slee from a specimen collected in the Maranoa region of Queensland, and the description was published in the journal Austrobaileya.[2] The specific epithet (ammophila) means "sand-loving".[3]

The sandplain red gum grows on red or orange sandplains in central and southern Queensland, including areas near Charleville, Yalleroi Jericho and the White Mountains.[5]

• List of Eucalyptus species