Hill and Johnson, Eucalyptus (Myrtaceae) 
533 
12. Eucalyptus tephrodes L.A.S. Johnson & K.D. Hill, sp. nov. 
Inter subseriem Argillaceosas distinguitur: folia magna, crassiuscula, glauca; fructus 
majusculi plus minusve aequidimensionales in pedicellis et pedunculis longis 
crassisque. 
Type: Western Australia: 40.1 km from highway towards Bedford Downs, K.D. Hill 
3463, L.A.S. Johnson & L. Sternberg, 25 Nov 1988 (holo NSW; iso CANB, PERTH). 
[E. sp. UU in part, Brooker & Kleinig 1994)| 
Tree or sometimes mallee to 10 m tall. Bark fully persistent, grey to grey-white, shortly 
fibrous-flaky (box). Juvenile leaves disjunct, glaucous, ovate-lanceolate to orbicular, 
petiolate, to 60 mm wide, 90 mm long. Adult leaves disjunct, similifacial, glaucous, 
lanceolate to broad-lanceolate, acute or rounded, 70-170 mm long, 12-45 mm wide, 
0.31-0.44 mm thick; petioles 12-23 mm long; lateral veins closely-spaced, regular, at 
40-60° to midrib; reticulum even, dense; oil glands small, obscure; intramarginal vein 
continuous, distinct, <1 mm from or at margin. Inflorescences compounded, 
pseudoterminal or axillary; unit umbellasters 3-7-flowered. Peduncles terete, 4—12 mm 
long. Pedicles terete or ± flattened, 2-6 mm long. Mature buds clavate, 8-9 mm long, 
4-5 mm diam.; calyptra hemispherical, shortly apiculate, c. V 2 as long as hypanthium. 
Fruit cup-shaped to globular-truncate, rarely cylindrical or pyriform, 4-6-locular, 6-10 
mm long, 6-11 mm diam.; calyptra scar and stemonophore flat, c. 0.5 mm wide; disc 
vertically depressed,l-2 mm wide; valves broadly triangular, obtuse, deeply enclosed, 
tips rarely exserted, raised at 45° or more. Seeds semi-glossy to dull, brownish-black, 
rounded, elliptical, regularly shallowly reticulate; hilum ventral. Chaff orange-brown. 
(Fig. 17). 
E. tephrodes is distinguished by the large, moderately thick glaucous leaves and the 
large more or less equidimensional fruit with long, thick pedicels and peduncles. 
Leaves are thicker in the north and west of the range in the Kimberley region, and also 
in the Pilbara region (0.36-0.44 mm), becoming thinner (0.31-0.37 mm) around Halls 
Creek. It is more frequently a medium-size single-trunked woodland tree than the 
related and partly sympatric £. limitaris. Both taxa however may form true mallees 
with extensive subterranean lignotubers. 
Distribution: Western Australia, south-east Kimberley region. Halls Creek and north, 
with a disjunct occurrence in the eastern Pilbara region (Fig. 16). 
Ecology: locally common but sporadic in open savanna woodland with Corymbia 
flavescens K.D. Hill & L.A.S. Johnson, E. camaldulensis subsp. obtusa, E. brevifolia and 
E. limitaris, on more or less loamy soils on various sites from dry creek-beds to low 
stony hills. Quite extensive woodlands of this species occur around Bedford Downs 
and west of there. In the Pilbara region, this species is less common and more widely 
scattered, and occurs in red loam along drainage lines and dry watercourses in open 
flat country, associated with E. trivalvis, Corymbia hamersleyana (D.J. Carr & S.G.M. 
Carr) K.D. Hill & L.A.S. Johnson, E. leucophloia subsp. leucophloia, E. xerothermica and C. 
Candida K.D. Hill & L.A.S. Johnson. Intergradation with E. xerothermica is discussed 
under the latter. In areas where the two occur together, E. tephrodes favours flatter sites 
on deeper soils, with E. xerothermica on shallower soils on higher sites. This is in 
contrast to the ecological segregation between E. limitaris and E. tephrodes, where 
E. tephrodes favours higher sites. The somewhat different habitat of E. tephrodes in the 
Pilbara region compared with that in the Kimberley region suggests that some genetic 
differences may be present, but no clear morphological distinction can be made 
between the two occurrences. 
Conservation status: widespread and locally abundant, not considered to be at risk. 
