Tree or mallee to about 10 m tall. Bark smooth, brown or grey. Branchlets with oil glands in the pith. Juvenile leaves narrowly lanceolate. Adult leaves linear-lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, often with a blunt hook at the tip; blade 5-6 cm long, to 1 cm wide, green, glossy. Leaf stalk 2-5 mm long. Flowers creamy white, in clusters of 3-7, scar present, buds 1.2-1.7 cm long, stalked, common stalk generally flattened, sometimes more or less cylindrical, 0.5-1.5 cm long; June-Dec. Fruit 7-12 mm long, obconical, rim thick, valves 3-4, projecting.
Grows naturally in gravelly loam soils N of Esperance.
subsp. spathulata is a tree or mallee to about 12 m tall. Bark often with persistent flaky scales but a shiny orange-brown. Leaf blade 5-6 cm long. Common flower stalk slightly flattened. Fruits in 7s, 6-10 mm long, 5-9 mm wide. Used for street planting or as a windbreak, often in quite damp soils. Grows naturally in low-lying hills from Wongan Hills to Ravensthorpe area of WA. Recognition Bark with satin sheen; leaves straight, narrow, veins obscure, oil dots prominent; flower caps horned, often orange.
VIC: Colac (Bot. Gds).
subsp. grandiflora (Benth.) L.A.S. Johnson & Blaxell. Tree or mallee to mostly 4 m tall. Leaf blade 5-6 cm long. Common flower stalk swollen,1-1.5 cm long. Fruits pear-shaped with 1-2 ribs, 9-12 mm long, 5-9 mm wide.
WA.
Bark often an extremely attractive shiny orange-brown; leaves narrow.
Source: (2002). Eucalyptus. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 3. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 2. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.