Eucalyptus cypellocarpa, commonly known as mountain grey gum, mountain gum, monkey gum or spotted mountain grey gum, is a species of straight, smooth-barked forest tree that is endemic to southeasternAustralia. It has relatively large, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, white flowers and usually cylindrical or barrel-shaped fruit.
Description
Eucalyptus cypellocarpa is a tree that typically grows to a height of and forms a lignotuber. It has smooth white, grey or yellowish bark that is shed in long ribbons. Young plants and coppice regrowth have stems that are square in cross-section, and sessile, lance-shaped to heart-shaped or egg-shaped leaves that long and wide. Adult leaves are lance-shaped to curved, usually the same glossy green on both surfaces, long and wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf s in groups of seven on a peduncle long, the individual buds sessile or on a pedicel up to long. Mature buds are green to yellow, oblong to oval, long and wide with a conical to beaked operculum. Flowering occurs from January to June and from October to November and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody cylindrical or barrel-shaped, sometimes cup-shaped or hemispherical capsule long and wide and sessile or on a pedicel up to long. The valves of the fruit are usually below rim level.
Taxonomy
Eucalyptus cypellocarpa was first formally described in 1962 by the Australian botanist Lawrie Johnson who collected the type specimen at "Sawmill to Wynne's Rocks, Mt. Wilson, 3,100 feet". The specific epithet is said to be derived from the Greekwordscypellum, "cup" and carpos, "fruit" and refers to the fruit stage. The proper word in ancient Greek for "cup" is kypellon.
Distribution and habitat
Mountain gum is found in New South Wales and Victoria where it tends to grow in wet sclerophyll forest, in gullies and on mid-altitude hillsides, from 30.25 to 39 degrees south. It grows from near sea level altitudes to and in cool to warm, humid to sub-humid environments with a temperature distribution of with an annual rainfall of. In New South Wales it is widespread in wet forests south from Tamworth, and in Victoria it is widespread in the south-east, including in the Black Range, Grampians and Pyrenees.
