Griffiths Grey Gum

Tree or mallee to 6 m. Bark smooth, red-brown to white or grey, with up to 0.6 m of flaky or scaly basal bark. Juvenile leaves lanceolate. Adult leaves lanceolate, acuminate or uncinate; lamina 10–13 cm long, 1–2.5 cm wide, shining, pale green or grey-green; lateral veins faint, at 35°–45°; intramarginal vein up to 1 mm from margin; petiole terete, 12–20 mm long. Umbels 3-flowered; peduncle angular, 10–14 mm long; pedicels 5–9 mm long. Buds clavate; operculum hemispherical, flat-topped, corrugated, 3–5 mm long, 8–12 mm wide; hypanthium campanulate, 2-ribbed, 6–10 mm long, 8–12 mm wide. Fruits campanulate, 2-ribbed, 8–14 mm long, 9–15 mm wide; disc shallowly descending, moderately broad; valves 4, strongly exserted.

Occurs in the eastern Goldfields, W.A., particularly between Kalgoorlie and Norseman.

Grows in loamy and gravelly soil, on flat salineareas and sometimes on rocky slopes.

W.A.: 6.4 km N of Widgiemooltha, M.I.H.Brooker 2225 (PERTH); 35 km W of Curtin, G.M.Chippendale 136 (FRI, MEL, NSW, PERTH); near Kalgoorlie, N.H.Speck 896 (AD, CANB, NSW, PERTH).

Distinguished by the rough, scaly or flaky basal bark, thick leaves, flat-topped clavate buds in 3s, and campanulate, 2-ribbed fruits.

Illustrations: G.M.Chippendale, Eucalypts W. Austral. Goldfields 166 (1973); C.A.Gardner (ed. T.E.Aplin), Eucalypts W. Australia 204 (1979); S.Kelly et al., Eucalypts 1: t. 41 (1983).

Flora of Australia Volume 19