Shining gum

Description

Eucalyptus nitens, commonly known as shining gum or silvertop, is a species of tall tree native to Victoria and eastern New South Wales. It has smooth greyish bark, sometimes with thin, rough bark near the base, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven or nine, white flowers and cup-shaped, barrel-shaped or cylindrical fruit. It grows in wet forests and rainforest margins on fertile soils in cool, high-rainfall areas. Eucalyptus nitens is a tree that typically grows to a height of 70 m (230 ft), sometimes to 90 m (300 ft) in Victoria, and does not form a lignotuber. It has smooth white, grey or yellow bark, often with persistent, rough, fibrous or flaky greyish bark near the base. The smooth bark is shed in long ribbons. Young plants have sessile leaves arranged in opposite pairs, lance-shaped to egg-shaped or heart-shaped, 65–110 mm (2.6–4.3 in) long and 28–55 mm (1.1–2.2 in) wide with stem-clasping bases. Adult leaves are lance-shaped to curved, glossy green, sometimes slightly paler on the lower surface, 100–300 mm (3.9–11.8 in) long and 15–40 mm (0.59–1.57 in) wide, tapering to a petiole 10–40 mm (0.39–1.57 in) long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils in groups of seven on an unbranched peduncle 5–15 mm (0.20–0.59 in) long, the individual buds sessile. Mature buds are oval or cylindrical, 6–7 mm (0.24–0.28 in) long and 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in) wide with a conical operculum that is the same width as the floral cup but shorter than it. Flowering occurs from January to March and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody cylindrical, cup-shaped or barrel-shaped capsule 4–7 mm (0.16–0.28 in) long and wide with the valves near rim level. Eucalyptus nitens occurs in Victoria on ranges east and north-east of Melbourne at high altitudes on the east of the Great Dividing Range from the Blue Range, Mt Monda and Mt Torbreck eastwards. It is also found on the high tablelands and mountains of southern New South Wales. There are two widely disjunct populations at high altitude (around 1,500 m (4,900 ft)) at Barrington Tops and near Ebor in north eastern New South Wales. Shining gum was first formally described in 1899 by Henry Deane and Joseph Maiden, who gave it the name Eucalyptus goniocalyx var. nitens and published the description in Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. In 1913, Maiden raised the variety to species status as E. nitens, publishing the change in his book, A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus.