| Eucalyptus drummondii | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Rosids |
| Order: | Myrtales |
| Family: | Myrtaceae |
| Genus: | Eucalyptus |
| Species: | E. drummondii |
| Binomial name | |
| Eucalyptus drummondii Benth. |
|
Eucalyptus drummondii (Drummond's Gum, Drummond's Mallee) is a mallee eucalypt native to southwest Western Australia.
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It grows as a mallee or tree up to 9 meters tall, with smooth, powdery, bark that is white, pink or grey in colour. Leaves at grey-green in colour. The flowers are white, and arise from pink buds on stems up to 2 centimetres long. Flower occur in clusters of up to seven.[1][2]
It was first published by George Bentham in 1867, in Volume 3 of his Flora Australiensis. Bentham based the species on a specimen collected "[b]etween Swan River and King George's Sound" by James Drummond in 1842.[3] In 1913, Joseph Henry Maiden demoted it to a variety of Eucalyptus oldfieldii, but this is no longer upheld.[4]
No infraspecific taxa have been published, though a number of subspecies have been tentatively identified. Some have been abandoned without ever being published, but two are still tentatively recognised; these are referred to by the informal manuscript names E. drummondii subsp. Moora (D. Nicolle 1653) and E. drummondii subsp. York (D. Nicolle & M. French DN 3684). And of course, should either of these be published in future, this would also invoke the autonymic subspecies.[5][6]
E. drummondii occurs throughout the Swan Coastal Plain and Jarrah Forest regions of the Southwest Botanical Province, and also extents somewhat into the Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains and Warren regions.[7] It is often found on outcrops of laterite.[2]