Incubator escapee wiki

Eucalyptus pauciflora

Article Discussion

Template:Short description Template:Speciesbox

File:SnowGumTrunk.jpg
Trunk in Kosciuszko National Park
File:Eucalyptus pauciflora1.jpg
Flower buds and flowers

Eucalyptus pauciflora, commonly known as snow gum, cabbage gum or white sally,<ref name="CANBR">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> is a species of tree or mallee that is native to eastern Australia. It has smooth bark, lance-shaped to elliptical leaves, flower buds in clusters of between seven and fifteen, white flowers and cup-shaped, conical or hemispherical fruit. It is widespread and locally common in woodland in cold sites above Template:Cvt altitude.

DescriptionEdit

Eucalyptus pauciflora is a tree or mallee, that typically grows to a height of Template:Cvt and forms a lignotuber. It has smooth white, grey or yellow bark that is shed in ribbons and sometimes has insect scribbles. Young plants and coppice regrowth have dull, bluish green or glaucous, broadly lance-shaped to egg-shaped leaves that are Template:Cvt long and Template:Cvt wide. Adult leaves are the same shade of glossy green on both sides, lance-shaped to curved or elliptical, Template:Cvt long and Template:Cvt wide, tapering to a petiole Template:Cvt long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils in cluster of between seven and fifteen, sometimes more, on an unbranched peduncle Template:Cvt long, the individual buds on pedicels up to Template:Cvt long. Mature buds are oval, Template:Cvt long and Template:Cvt wide with a conical to rounded operculum. Flowering occurs from October to February and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody, cup-shaped, conical or hemispherical capsule Template:Cvt long and wide.<ref name="CANBR" /><ref name="ABRS">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="RBGV">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="RBGS">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

TaxonomyEdit

Eucalyptus pauciflora was first formally described in 1827 by Kurt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel from an unpublished description by Franz Sieber. Sprengel published the description in Systema Vegetabilium.<ref name=APNI>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Spreng.">Template:Cite book</ref> The specific epithet pauciflora is from the Latin pauciflorus meaning "few-flowered".<ref>Allen J. Coombes Template:Google books</ref><ref>D. Gledhill Template:Google books</ref> The term pauciflora (few-flowered) is a misnomer, and may originate in an early collected specimen losing its buds in transit.<ref name=KEW />

Six subspecies are recognised by the Australian Plant Census as at 30 November 2019:

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Distribution and habitatEdit

Snow gum grows in woodland along the ranges and tablelands, in flat, cold sites above Template:Cvt from the far south-east of Queensland, through New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, and Victoria, to near Mount Gambier in South Australia and Tasmania.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In Tasmania the species hybridises with Eucalyptus coccifera and Eucalyptus amygdalina.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

EcologyEdit

Snow gum is amongst the hardiest of all eucalyptus species, surviving the severe winter temperatures of the Australian Alps.<ref name=KEW>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The species regenerates from seed, by epicormic shoots below the bark, and from lignotubers. It is the most cold-tolerant species of eucalyptus, with E. pauciflora subsp. niphophila surviving temperatures down to Template:Convert and year-round frosts. It has been introduced to Norway.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Influence on snowpack processesEdit

At altitudes where stands of snow gum coincide with seasonal snowfall above an altitude of about Template:Cvt, the trees have been shown to increase snowpack accumulation and moderate melt, making snow gum critically important to the hydrology and water resources of southeast Australia. Contrary to characteristics of needle-leaf forests, snow gums don't frequently intercept large quantities of snowfall on branches and leaves such that increased evaporation or sublimation would occur.<ref name=":0" /> As a result, snow accumulation is greater in living snow gum forests than burned forests or unforested areas.<ref name=":0" />

Bushfire impact on snow gums alters these effects and leads to reduced snowpack longevity and greater evaporation/sublimation processes, in turn reducing snowpack runoff available for ecosystem and human use.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> It is estimated that the 2019-2020 bushfires impacted 462 km2 (33%) of mapped snow gum forest that regularly has seasonal snowpack, which would equate to a reduction in annual snowpack runoff of 63.3 gigalitres (about 25,320 olympic swimming pools).<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Use in horticultureEdit

In cultivation in the UK, Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. niphophila<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. debeuzevillei<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

GalleryEdit

  • Snow Gum Tree.jpg

    A snowgum at Perisher in New South Wales

  • Snow Gum1.JPG

    Image showing the tree's ability to survive in deep snow

  • Snow Gum 2.JPG

    Image showing how the branches bend rather than break with the weight of the snow and how this causes snow to be lost from the leaves

  • Stillwell from Pulpit.jpg

    Snow gum woodland below the tree line

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

Further readingEdit

  • Iglesias Trabado, Gustavo (2007). Eucalyptus from Alpine Australia. Notes on taxonomy and cultivation in cold temperate climates, In: EUCALYPTOLOGICS

External linksEdit

Template:Sister project

Template:Taxonbar

Retrieved from "https://zalansite.site/mediawiki/index.php?title=Eucalyptus_pauciflora&oldid=418593"