29 
Bean, Eastern Grey Boxes 
Both species have narrow green leaves, 
no operculum scar, small fruits, and 
predominantly axillary inflorescences. In 
the herbarium, the typical form of E. viridis 
may be distinguished by the longer and more 
attenuate buds, the broader fruits, the slightly 
narrower adult leaves, and the longer pedicels 
on both buds and fruits. When juvenile 
leaves are present, these provide a further 
differentiation - those of E. woollsiana are 
lanceolate near the type locality, whereas 
E. viridis juveniles are linear. In the field, 
there is little likelihood of confusion; 
E. woollsiana is invariably a tree to 20 metres 
high. E. viridis is invariably a mallee to 8 m 
which can occur in the same general area as 
E. woollsiana (e.g. S of Nyngan), but is never 
associated with it. 
Gillison (1976) wrote “the type locality 
now appears to be devoid of box trees of the 
type described by Baker, particularly near 
Girilambone where E. viridis is common” 
He then went on to postulate that all the 
E. woollsiana trees near Girilambone had 
been destroyed for pit-props and railway 
sleepers in the early 20 th century. It is true 
that E. woollsiana (as to lectotype) does 
not now occur in the Girilambone area, but 
I contend that it was never there in the first 
place. Baker’s citation of ‘Girilambone’ in 
the protologue of E. woollsiana is based on 
specimens of E. viridis. 
Blakely (1934) and Johnston & Marryatt 
(1965) accepted Eucalyptus woollsiana as 
a distinct species. Hall et al. (1970) treated 
E. woollsiana and E. microcarpa on the 
same page, because they “are so closely 
related”, and distinguished them only on 
the shape of the juvenile and adult leaves. 
Pryor & Johnson (1971) foreshadowed the 
reduction of E. microcarpa to a subspecies of 
E. woollsiana , but this did not occur. Brooker 
& Kleinig (1983) treated E. microcarpa as 
an accepted species with the notation in 
brackets “includes E. woollsiana”. Brooker 
et al. (1984) repeated this statement. Since 
then, E. woollsiana has been relegated to 
synonymy with E. microcarpa , despite the 
fact that woollsiana is the earlier name by 20 
years. 
The acceptance of Eucalyptus microcarpa 
over E. woollsiana appears to stem from 
Gillison (1976) who wrote “For the present... I 
cannot accept E. woollsiana as a valid species. 
The taxonomic position of the lectotype is 
not clear. I have examined the specimen 
‘Woollsiana No. 1’ from Girilambone to 
Condobolin (W. Baeuerlen, Sept. 1900) which 
is a mixture of at least two taxonomically 
distinct specimens”. It is perhaps true that 
the branchlet at the far left hand side of that 
specimen belongs to another gathering or 
taxon, but as it is sterile, it is difficult to say. 
Certainly all of the fertile branchlets are from 
the same taxon, and are consistent with a 
single gathering. 
Gillison (1976) rejected Eucalyptus 
woollsiana with the following statement: “The 
retention of E. woollsiana as a species can 
serve no useful purpose, neither is it useful to 
consider it as ‘geminate’ with E. microcarpa 
in view of its intergradations with other 
taxa, in particular E. pilligaensis. Under 
the circumstances I consider the lectotype 
specimen is part of a hybrid swarm.” 
It is indisputable that there is clinal 
variation occurring between members of the 
Eastern grey box group, but in the Nyngan 
area the Grey box taxon is quite uniform in 
morphology. Therefore it is difficult to see 
how the lectotype could be interpreted as “part 
of a hybrid swarm”, and it is not acceptable 
to invalidate Eucalyptus woollsiana on this 
basis. 
Eucalyptus woollsiana does not have the 
ovate juvenile leaves and the rather broad adult 
leaves that characterise typical E. microcarpa , 
and the fruits of E. woollsiana are smaller 
and cupular to obconical in shape. Hence they 
cannot be considered synonymous. However, 
E. woollsiana populations occurring near 
Nyngan (the type area) have all the features 
of E. pilligaensis. Maiden distinguished 
E. pilligaensis on the basis of its narrow 
“sucker leaves” and small fruits, but these 
are also the salient features of E. woollsiana. 
They are here considered synonymous. There 
is variation in the width of juvenile leaves 
within E. woollsiana ; populations from the 
Yelarbon - Inglewood area of Queensland have 
