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Saturday, August 2, 2014

Eucalyptus spathulata - Swamp Mallee

The Swamp Mallee is a nice small evergreen tree in the 20-30' range with upright branches and an open canopy. Plants have somewhat of gray brown look to them, even in summer. Often grown as a screen, though I have only seen a few trees.



These are the two on Wharf Rd.



The leaves are evergreen, narrowly linear, 3+ inches long, about 1/4" wide, gray-green in summer. Turning reddish prior to abscission. 



Flowers are small, cream colored, not showy, hard to see (hard to reach as well). Flower buds are pretty cool, small but with a long cap (operculum) in clusters of (3)5-7.



Fruit is a small capsule.



Bark is smooth to the base where there is a tiny bit to persistent bark. Gray and red brown mostly




Misidentification: Other narrow leaf Eucalyptus for sure, but these are pretty small, very narrow and something like E. nicolii has very different bark.

Location:
Capitola
1901 Wharf Road, two specimens. Not sure about the exact address, its an apartment complex with 1900 Wharf Rd across the street.