Eucalyptus creta
{{Short description|Species of eucalyptus}}
{{speciesbox
|name = Large-fruited gimlet
|image =
|status_system = DECF
|status = P3
|genus = Eucalyptus
|species = creta
|authority = L.A.S.Johnson & K.D.Hill{{cite web|title=Eucalyptus creta|url= https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/118627|publisher=Australian Plant Census|access-date=17 May 2019}}
}}
Eucalyptus creta, commonly known as the large-fruited gimlet,{{cite web |title=Eucalyptus creta |url=https://apps.lucidcentral.org/euclid/text/entities/eucalyptus_creta.htm |publisher=Euclid: Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research |access-date=4 June 2020}} is a species of mallet or tree that is endemic to Western Australia. It has smooth, shiny bark, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of three in leaf axils, relatively large white to creamy yellow flowers, and broadly hemispherical to bell-shaped fruit.
Description
Eucalyptus creta is a mallet or tree that typically grows to a height of {{cvt|3-15|m}} but does not form a lignotuber. It has smooth, shiny, yellowish, greenish or brownish to copper-coloured bark. Adult leaves are narrow lance-shaped, the same glossy green on both sides, {{cvt|55-132|mm}} long and {{cvt|12-35|mm}} wide on a petiole {{cvt|8-18|mm}} long. The flower buds are arranged in groups of three in leaf axils on a peduncle {{cvt|1-3|mm}} long, the individual buds sessile. Mature buds are oval, {{cvt|15-22|mm}} long and {{cvt|14-20|mm}} wide with a wing on two sides of the floral cup and a beaked operculum. Flowering occurs in May and the flowers are white to creamy yellow. The fruit is a woody, hemispherical to shallow cup-shaped capsule with two wings along the sides and the valves at the same level as the rim or extended beyond it.{{FloraBase|name=Eucalyptus creta|id=12374}}{{cite journal |last1=Johnson |first1=Lawrence A.S. |last2=Hill |first2=Kenneth D. |title=Systematic studies in the eucalypts - 2. A revision of the gimlets and related species: Eucalyptus extracodical series Salubres and Annulatae (Myrtaceae) |journal=Telopea |date=1 March 1991 |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=213–215 |doi=10.7751/telopea19914927|doi-access=free }}{{cite web |last1=Archer |first1=William |title=Eucalyptus creta - large fruited gimlet |url=http://esperancewildflowers.blogspot.com/2011/08/eucalyptus-creta-large-fruited-gimlet.html |publisher=Esperance Wildflowers |access-date=17 May 2019}}
Taxonomy and naming
Eucalyptus creta was first formally described in 1991 by Lawrie Johnson and Ken Hill from a specimen collected north of Mount Ney, north-east of Esperance.{{cite web|title=Eucalyptus creta|url= https://id.biodiversity.org.au/instance/apni/456233|publisher=APNI|access-date=16 May 2019}} The specific epithet (creta) is a Latin word meaning "grow" or "increase",{{cite book|last1=Brown|first1=Roland Wilbur|title=The Composition of Scientific Words|date=1956|publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press|location=Washington, D.C.|page=384}} "referring to the buds, flowers and fruit".
Distribution and habitat
Large-fruited gimlet is locally common in a restricted area north-east of Esperance in the Esperance Plains and Mallee biogeographic regions, where it grows on calcareous plains in sandy loam or clay with little understorey vegetation.
Conservation status
This eucalypt is classified as "Priority Three" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife meaning that it is poorly known and known from only a few locations but is not under imminent threat.{{cite web|title=Conservation codes for Western Australian Flora and Fauna|url=https://www.dpaw.wa.gov.au/images/documents/plants-animals/threatened-species/Listings/Conservation%20code%20definitions.pdf|publisher=Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife|access-date=17 May 2019}}