Eucalyptus stenostoma, the Jillaga Ash is a rarely seen eucalyptus

Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus is a diverse genus of flowering trees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Members of the genus dominate the tree flora of Australia...

 tree of eastern Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It grows in remote forests on the tablelands of south eastern New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

. Eucalyptus stenostoma is a small to mid sized tree, usually 10 to 20 metres tall, often with a leaning trunk. The tallest are around 25 metres. The original specimen was collected by D.J. Hynd. in July 1965. Located north west of Nerrigundah

Nerrigundah, New South Wales

thumb|right|220px|Nerrigundah & memorial obeliskNerrigundah is a small village on the Eurobodalla Nature Coast in south eastern New South Wales. Situated at the head of the Tuross River Valley, it is nineteen kilometres inland from Bodalla. At the 2006 census, Nerrigundah had a population of 100...

 at the head of the Tuross River

Tuross River

-References:...

, elevation 865 metres, parish of Jilliga, county of Dampier. The specific epithet is from the Greek. Stenos for narrow. It refers to the narrow stoma

Stoma

In botany, a stoma is a pore, found in the leaf and stem epidermis that is used forgas exchange. The pore is bordered by a pair of specialized parenchyma cells known as guard cells that are responsible for regulating the size of the opening...

 on the leaves.

Description

Bark is fibrous, grey-black, similar to the peppermint types of eucalyptus. Above the bark is white or creamish-yellow with insect larvae scribbles. Bark sheds in long ribbons.

Adult leaves are alternate on the stem. Lanceolate or curved. Leaf oblique at the base, the leaf stem is around 25 to 35 mm long. Leaves are relatively thick and glossy. The same colour green above as below the leaf. The leaves are veiny. Adult leaves 13 to 19 cm long, 1.5 to 3 cm wide. Juvenile leaves are stalk-less, round or broad lanceolate, opposite on the stem. Bluish-green above, paler below. 5 cm long and 2 cm wide.

White flowers form in summer. Individual flower stems are round in cross section, however the peduncle

Peduncle (botany)

In botany, a peduncle is a stem supporting an inflorescence, or after fecundation, an infructescence.The peduncle is a stem, usually green and without leaves, though sometimes colored or supporting small leaves...

 is angled and flattened. New gumnuts are glaucous

Glaucous

Glaucous is used to describe the pale grey or bluish-green appearance of the surfaces of some plants, as well as in the names of birds, such as the Glaucous Gull , Glaucous-winged Gull , Glaucous Macaw , and Glaucous...

. Gumnuts around 1 cm by 1 cm.

Similar in appearance to the White Ash

Eucalyptus fraxinoides

Eucalyptus fraxinoides, the White Ash is a eucalyptus tree of mountain country of south eastern New South Wales. Eucalyptus fraxinoides is a medium to large tree, usually 20 to 40 metres tall, sometimes with a leaning trunk. The trunk is marked with broad descending coppery coloured scribbles...

. However, the Jillaga Ash tends to lean downhill, have reddish new growth, and the gumnuts are globose in shape, with a small opening. Inside the gumnut, the chaff is somewhat cube shaped, and clearly a different in colour to the seed.

Habitat

Jillaga Ash grows only in the catchment areas of the Tuross

Tuross River

-References:...

 and Deua River

Deua River

The Deua River is the freshwater reaches of the Moruya River, an east coast drainage in southern New South Wales, Australia. The Deua River rises in rugged and thickly forested ranges south of Braidwood...

s. On steeply sloping dry woodland on relatively infertile soils. Difficult to locate, however, it is locally abundant in some sites.

The soils of the type location are recorded as shallow and poor, based on shale

Shale

Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...

 and slate

Slate

Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...

. Another site 1.3 kilometres north of Bendethera Mountain is described as being an exposed ridge, facing west on rhyolite

Rhyolite

This page is about a volcanic rock. For the ghost town see Rhyolite, Nevada, and for the satellite system, see Rhyolite/Aquacade.Rhyolite is an igneous, volcanic rock, of felsic composition . It may have any texture from glassy to aphanitic to porphyritic...

based soils, 980 metres above sea level.