Eucalyptus astringens
{{Short description|Species of eucalyptus}}
{{speciesbox
|name = Brown mallet
|image = Eucalyptus astringens habit.jpg
|image_caption = Eucalyptus astringens growing at Loxton, South Australia
|genus = Eucalyptus
|species = astringens
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
|authority = (Maiden) Maiden{{cite web|title=Eucalyptus astringens|url= https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/95392|publisher=Australian Plant Census|access-date=8 March 2019}}
}}
Eucalyptus astringens, commonly known as brown mallet{{FloraBase|name=Eucalyptus astringens|id=5557}} or to Noongar people as mallat, woonert or wurnert,{{cite web|url=http://www.kippleonline.net/bobhoward/plantsframe.html|title=Noongar names for plants|access-date=20 November 2016|publisher=kippleonline.net|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161120071826/http://www.kippleonline.net/bobhoward/plantsframe.html|archive-date=20 November 2016|url-status=dead}} is a tree that is endemic to the South West region of Western Australia. It has smooth, shiny bark on its trunk and branches, lance-shaped leaves, pendulous flower buds arranged in groups of seven, cream-coloured to pale lemon-coloured flowers and cup-shaped to bell-shaped or conical fruit. This tree has also been introduced to Victoria.File:Eucalyptus astringens buds (2).jpgFile:Eucalyptus astringens flowers.jpgFile:Eucalyptus astringens fruit (2).jpgFile:Eucalyptus astringens bark.jpg
Description
The tree typically grows to a height of {{convert|1.5|to|15|m|ft|0}} and can get to {{convert|24|m|ft|0|abbr=on}} tall. It has smooth grey-brown coloured bark that peels from the trunk and branches. It blooms from August to December and produces white cream to yellow flowers. At breast height the trunk has a diameter of around {{convert|7|m|ft|0|abbr=on}}. It is drought tolerant and grows in areas with rainfall of {{convert|300|to|400|mm|in|1}} per year.{{cite web|url=http://www.fpc.wa.gov.au/about-us/publications/species/brown-mallet|title=Brown mallet Eucalyptus astringens|access-date=24 November 2017|publisher=Forest Products Commission}} The concolorous, glossy, green adult leaves have an alternate arrangement. The leaf blade has a lanceolate shape and are {{convert|6|to|14|cm|in|0}} long and {{convert|1|to|3.5|cm|in|1}} wide. The unbranched inflorescences have an axillary arrangement. Each inflorescence is seven-flowered with flattened peduncles around {{convert|3.4|cm|in|1|abbr=on}} flattened. The buds are pedicellate with a stubby to elongated shape. The fruits that form later are pedicellate and cupular to campanulate. Each fruit is around {{convert|1.2|cm|in|1|abbr=on}} with a diameter of around {{convert|1|cm|in|1|abbr=on}}. They each have a level to descending disc with three or four valves containing grey-black seeds with an ovoid to flattened-ovoid shape.
Taxonomy
Brown mallet was first formally described in 1911 by Joseph Maiden who gave it the name Eucalyptus occidentalis var. astringens and published the description in the Journal of the Natural History and Science Society of Western Australia.{{cite web|title=Eucalyptus occidentalis var. astringens|url= https://id.biodiversity.org.au/instance/apni/456059 |publisher=APNI|access-date=8 March 2019}}{{cite journal |last1=Maiden |first1=Joseph |title=Notes on Western Australian eucalypts, including description of new species |journal=Journal of the Natural History & Science Society of Western Australia |date=1911 |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=186–187 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/216975#page/224/mode/1up |access-date=8 March 2019}} In 1924, Maiden raised the variety to species status in his book A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus.{{cite web|title=Eucalyptus astringens|url= https://id.biodiversity.org.au/instance/apni/455570 |publisher=APNI|access-date=8 March 2019}}{{cite book |last1=Maiden |first1=Joseph |title=A critical revision of the genus Eucalyptus (Volume 7) |date=1924 |publisher=N.S.W. Government Printer |location=Sydney |pages=55–56 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/123315#page/101/mode/1up |access-date=8 March 2019}} The specific epithet (astringens) is a Latin word meaning "shrinking" or "binding".{{cite book|last1=Brown|first1=Roland Wilbur|title=The Composition of Scientific Words|date=1956|publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press|location=Washington, D.C.|page=109}}
In 2002, Ian Brooker and Stephen Hopper described two subspecies:{{cite journal |last1=Brooker |first1=M. Ian |last2=Hopper |first2=Stephen |title=Taxonomy of species deriving from the publication of Eucalyptus subseries Cornutae Benth. (Myrtaceae) |journal=Nuytsia |date=2002 |volume=14 |issue=3 |page=353 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/223971#page/41/mode/1up |access-date=13 March 2019}}
- Eucalyptus astringens subsp. astringens is a taller mallet with flower buds usually longer than {{convert|15|mm|in|0}};{{cite web|title=Eucalyptus astringens subsp. astringens|url= https://id.biodiversity.org.au/instance/apni/591737 |publisher=APNI|access-date=8 March 2019}}{{cite web |title=Eucalyptus astringens |url=http://keyserver.lucidcentral.org:8080/euclid/data/02050e02-0108-490e-8900-0e0601070d00/media/Html/Eucalyptus_astringens_subsp._astringens.htm |publisher=Euclid: Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research |access-date=8 March 2019}}
- Eucalyptus astringens subsp. redacta is a smaller mallet with smaller buds and fruit than the autonym.{{cite web|title=Eucalyptus astringens subsp. redacta|url= https://id.biodiversity.org.au/instance/apni/591737 |publisher=APNI|access-date=8 March 2019}}{{FloraBase|name=Eucalyptus astringens subsp. redacta|id=19663}}
Distribution
Brown mallet is commonly found on rocky outcrops, ridges, breakaways, hills and on valley floors in the southern Wheatbelt, Great Southern and south west Goldfields-Esperance regions of Western Australia. It grows in red-brown gravelly clay, brown clayey sand, sandy loam, spongolite, laterite and sandstone based soils.
It is commonly associated with E. wandoo making up the overstorey, especially when E. wandoo woodland is an adjacent community. Understorey species often include occasional Santalum acuminatum and Melaleuca scalena, and a sparse ground cover of common grasses and herbs such as Thysanotus patersonii, Trachymene pilosa, Pterostylis sanguineus, Austrostipa elegantissima, Austrodanthonia setacea group and Lomandra micrantha subsp. micrantha.{{cite web|url=https://naturemap.dpaw.wa.gov.au/(F(LcWl3M3MlZGNjT5iOZXaLdvv1gZeCfJG__KWFG8DU-2rMTukFSyF-S2E4_LbXqniMMQqCkMbSFh04CrCpX50KAp_WMXgrTcAOyHzXWOZwzcSCMi2KDb3110jQrLIGMbnXZQLEUOZjB7toA1OXozEC9X1FYQ1))/resources/acc/communities/MALLETS/Eucalyptus_astringens_(Brown_Mallet)_Woodland.htm|title=Eucalyptus astringens (brown mallet) woodland|access-date=13 November 2016|publisher=Wheatbelt woodlands}}
E. astringens has become naturalised in Bacchus Marsh, north of Melbourne, in Victoria, where it had been used to stabilise soils.{{cite web|url=https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/0495007f-9ba7-4be5-90f9-e3bb6e7c29ea|title=Eucalyptus astringens (Maiden) Maiden Brown Mallet|access-date=24 November 2017|work=Vicflora|publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria}}
Uses
The wood from the tree is used for construction, mining timbers and for tool handles. It is also a good firewood. The bark contains around 40% tannin and could possibly be used for tanning leather and production of adhesives.
Around {{convert|8000|ha|acre|0}} of the tree have been planted around Narrogin in plantations for timber production.
See also
{{Portal|Trees}}