Corymbia bunites


Corymbia bunites, commonly known as the Blackdown yellowjacket, is a species of tall tree that is endemic to Queensland. It has rough bark on the trunk and branches, lance-shaped or curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, white flowers and barrel-shaped, urn-shaped or spherical fruit.

Description

Corymbia bunites is a tree that typically grows to a height of and forms a lignotuber. It has soft, rough, flaky yellowish or brownish bark on the trunk and branches. Young plants and coppice regrowth have egg-shaped to lance-shaped leaves that are long and wide. Adult leaves are the same shade of green on both sides, lance-shaped or curved, long and wide, tapering to a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged on the ends of branchlets on a branched peduncle long, each branch of the peduncle with seven buds that are sessile or on pedicels up to long. Mature buds are oval, about long and wide with a variably shaped operculum. The flowers are white and the fruit is a woody barrel-shaped, urn-shaped or spherical capsule long and wide with the valves enclosed in the fruit.

Taxonomy and naming

The Blackdown yellowjacket was first formally described in 1991 by Ian Brooker and Anthony Bean in the journal Austrobaileya and given the name Eucalyptus bunites from specimens collected by Brooker on the Blackdown Tableland in 1972. In 1995, Ken Hill and Lawrie Johnson changed the name to Corymbia bunites. The specific epithet is from an ancient Greek word meaning "hill dweller", referring to the habitat of this species.

Distribution and habitat

Corymbia bunites grows in shallow, sandy soil on sandstone hills and ridges. It has a disjunct distribution, mainly on the Blackdown Tableland but also on the Expedition Dawson, Bedourie and Shotover Ranges.

Conservation status

This eucalypt is classified as of "least concern" under the Queensland Government Nature Conservation Act 1992.