Eucalyptus todtiana is a species of tree native to south-western 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...

.

Common names include Blackbutt, Coastal Blackbutt and Pricklybark.

Description

E. todtiana grows to about 15 metres. It has a weeping habit and has rough fibrous grey/brown bark with tough, fine fibres.

It produces cream and white flowers from January to April.

Distribution and habitat

It generally occurs near the crests of low sandy rises in the white/grey or yellow Bassendean sands, often over laterite

Laterite

Laterites are soil types rich in iron and aluminium, formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are rusty-red because of iron oxides. They develop by intensive and long-lasting weathering of the underlying parent rock...

 and is more often mixed with Jarrah

Jarrah

Eucalyptus marginata is one of the most common species of Eucalyptus tree in the southwest of Western Australia. The tree and the wood are usually referred to by the Aboriginal name Jarrah...

 and Marri

Corymbia calophylla

Corymbia calophylla is a bloodwood native to Western Australia. Common names include Marri and Port Gregory Gum, and a long standing usage has been Red Gum due to the red gum effusions often found on trunks.It is distinctive among bloodwoods for its very large buds and fruit Corymbia calophylla...

 in the west and Banksia

Banksia

Banksia is a genus of around 170 species in the plant family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes and fruiting "cones" and heads. When it comes to size, banksias range from prostrate woody shrubs to trees up...

 and Sheoak in the east. It prefers light, well-drained soils in an open, sunny position.

Distribution is mainly between Perth

Perth, Western Australia

Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

 and Dongara

Dongara, Western Australia

Dongara is a town located 351 km north-northwest of Perth on the Brand Highway. The town is located at the mouth of the Irwin River. In recent years the area has been marketed as the 'Rock lobster capital of Australia'....

 in the Southwest Botanical Province, Avon Wheatbelt

Avon Wheatbelt

Avon Wheatbelt is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia region in Western Australia and part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion.-Further reading:...

, Geraldton Sandplains

Geraldton Sandplains

Geraldton Sandplains is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia region in Western Australia and part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion.It has two sub regions: -* Geraldton Hills sub region* Lesuer sub region...

, Jarrah Forest

Jarrah Forest

Jarrah Forest is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia region in Western Australia.-Location and description:The ecoregion stands on the 300m high Yilgarn block inland plateau and includes wooded valleys such as those of Western Australia's Murray River and the Helena River near...

 and the Swan Coastal Plain

Swan Coastal Plain

The Swan Coastal Plain in Western Australia is the geographic feature which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. The coastal plain continues well beyond the boundaries of the Swan River and its tributaries, as a geological and biological zone, one of Western Australia's...

.
Due to diminishing remnant bushlands Within the Perth metropolitan area, individual trees are becoming less common. One specimen on Kitchener Road, Victoria Park (pictured) adjacent to the Armadale railway line in the Town of Victoria Park, is listed on the Council's Significant Tree List.

Taxonomy

It was first described by Ferdinand von Mueller

Ferdinand von Mueller

Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, KCMG was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist.-Early life:...

 in 1882, based on specimens collected by him from sandy ridges near the Greenough

Greenough River

The Greenough River is a river in the Mid West region of Western Australia.-Course:Nominally located at , Greenough River has its headwaters near Woojalong Hills on the Yilgarn Plateau. It runs in a south westerly direction through deep valleys for approximately , passing through the Waterloo...

 and Arrowsmith

Arrowsmith River

The Arrowsmith River in the Mid West region of Western Australia.The first European to discover the river was the explorer George Grey in 1839 who named it after the distinguished English geographer John Arrowsmith....

 Rivers, and also specimens collected by John Forrest

John Forrest

Sir John Forrest GCMG was an Australian explorer, the first Premier of Western Australia and a cabinet minister in Australia's first federal parliament....

 from near the Moore River

Moore River

Moore River in Western Australia can refer to a number of places:*Moore River - the river itself*Moore River National Park - national park that the river runs through...

. The specific name honours Emil Todt

Emil Todt

Emil Hermann Todt was a German botanical artist and sculptor who was active in Australia from the 1850s to the 1880s.Todt was born in Berlin in 1810 or 1811, and studied sculpture under Ludwig Wichmann from around 1830 until 1836. In 1849 he emigrated to South Australia, possibly because of an...

, a botanical artist who drew some of the plates for Mueller's Atlas of Eucalypts. It has had an uneventful taxonomic history, with no subspecies or varieties, and no synonyms. In the most recent infrageneric classification, it is placed in E. subg. Eucalyptus, sect. Hesperia, ser. Todtianae.

Cultivation

E. todtiana is not often grown in cultivation. It grows rapidly as a sapling if planted in an open position, but as an adult it grows slowly and flowers profusely.