Trees to 50 m tall. Bark smooth throughout or peeling in long strips and hanging from the trunks and branches, occasionally rough or fibrous on trunk or to larger branches. Juvenile leaves opposite, stalkless, stem-clasping. Adult leaves long, willow-like, lanceolate or narrow lanceolate, same colour on both sides. Flowers white, in clusters of 3 or occasionally 7; Jan-May. Fruits with broad disk.
subsp. cygnetensis Boomsma, Rough-barked Manna Gum. Bark rough below, smooth and white on branches. Adult leaf lamina 12-18 cm long, 2-2.5 cm wide. Leaf stalk 1-1.5 cm long. Flowers in 7s, common stalk cylindrical 5-13 mm long. Fruits 4-6 mm long, 5-8 mm wide. Grows naturally from Kangaroo Island and Eyre Peninsula in SA, to Grampians in Vic on fertile soils in open forest and woodland.
subsp. viminalis, Manna Gum. Bark smooth throughout or rough. Adult leaf blade 12-20 cm long, 0.8-2 cm wide. Leaf stalk cylindrical or slightly flattened, 1-2.5 cm long. Flowers in 3s, buds forming a cross shape, common stalk 4-8 mm long. Fruits 5-8 mm long, 5-9 mm wide, valves 3-4. Widely distributed in damp soils of tall, open forest from SA to Qld including Tas and Bass Strait Islands. Often eaten by koalas. Prone to limb drop. Recognition Flower buds in cross-shaped 3s (cf. E. rubra).
ACT: Yarralumla (Government House, ptd Viscount Slim 25 Jan 1960, Queen of Thailand 27 Aug 1962, Duke of Edinburgh and Queen Elizabeth II Mar 1963). VIC: Fernshaw (Reserve); Korumburra (Public Park). TAS: Circular Head; Fingal (Mathinna Rd, Upper Esk Rd); Hobart (Gregson Ave); Launceston (Mt Barrow Rd); Westbury (Peel St).
SA, Vic, NSW, Qld, Tas.
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.
