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Eucalypt is any woody plant with capsule fruiting bodies belonging to one of seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australia:

Eucalyptus, Corymbia, Angophora, Stockwellia, Allosyncarpia, Eucalyptopsis and Arillastrum.

Taxonomy

For an example of changing historical perspectives, in 1991, largely genetic evidence indicated that some prominent Eucalyptus species were actually more closely related to Angophora than to other eucalypts; they were accordingly split off into the new genus Corymbia.

Although separate, all of these genera and their species are allied and it remains the standard to refer to the members of all seven genera Angophora, Corymbia, Eucalyptus, Stockwellia, Allosyncarpia, Eucalyptopsis and Arillastrum as "eucalypts" or as the eucalypt group.

  • Their seeds are often held in an insulated capsule, which opens only after a bushfire. Once cooled down, the land becomes a freshly fertilised seed bed.
  • Oils in the leaves tend to make the fire more severe and therefore more damaging to less attuned species, giving an evolutionary advantage to the eucalypts.

Epicormic buds under the often thick bark of the trunk and branches are ready to sprout new stems and leaves after a fire.

See also

  • Orthorhinus cylindrirostris

References

  • Plant Guide: Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora at Australian Native Plants Society
  • Eucalypt Research at Currency Creek Arboretum