Appearance

• Tree; bark rough over whole trunk and branches, thick, hard, grooved, black (ironbark).
• Size: to 35m tall
• Leaves: juvenile leaves petiolate (have a stalk), are opposite for a few pairs then alternate, narrowly to broadly tapering to a point, to 17 cm long, 4 cm wide, more or less discolorous, green or greyish-green or glaucous (covered with a a greyish, bluish, or whitish powder or waxy coating); adult leaves petiolate (have a stalk), alternate, lance-head shaped, 9.5–22 cm long, 1–2 cm wide, concolorous (the lower leaf surface distinctly different in colour from the upper), green or glaucous (covered with a greyish, bluish, or whitish waxy coating); reticulation dense with numerous intersectional oil glands
• Flowers: It blooms producing inflorescences with flowers that white, rarely pink
• Keep an eye out for the flower caps that cover developing flowers and may fall on the ground at the end of flowering!
• Fruits/seeds: Fruits are truncate (end abruptly as it cut off across the tip), spherical and 1.4 cm long, 1.4 cm diam.; seed brown, irregularly egg-shaped and slightly flattened.

What to Observe

First fully open single flower, Full flowering (record all days), End of flowering (when 95% of the flowers have faded), No flowering.

ClimateWatch Science Advisor

We expect plants to start shooting and flowering earlier in the year as a result of climate change warming the Earth. They may also start appearing in new areas, as warmer temperatures enable them to live in environments that were previously too cold for them.

When To Look

Between February and November. Late winter for fallen flower caps.

Where To Look

VIC, NSW

Ironbark distribution map - OzNativePlants

References

Experts Consulted:
Dr Marie Keatley

Links

• Vic Flora
• ANBG