Eucalyptus pauciflora, commonly known as snow gum, cabbage gum or white sally, is a species of tree or mallee that is native to eastern Australia. It has smooth bark, lance-shaped to elliptical leaves, flower buds in clusters of between seven and fifteen, white flowers and cup-shaped, conical or hemispherical fruit. It is widespread and locally common in woodland in cold sites above altitude.
Description
Eucalyptus pauciflora is a tree or mallee, that typically grows to a height of and forms a lignotuber. It has smooth white, grey or yellow bark that is shed in ribbons and sometimes has insect scribbles. Young plants and coppice regrowth have dull, bluish green or, broadly lance-shaped to egg-shaped leaves that are long and wide. Adult leaves are the same shade of glossy green on both sides, lance-shaped to curved or elliptical, long and wide, tapering to a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf s in cluster of between seven and fifteen, sometimes more, on an unbranched peduncle long, the individual buds on pedicels up to long. Mature buds are oval, long and wide with a conical to rounded operculum. Flowering occurs from October to February and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody, cup-shaped, conical or hemispherical capsule long and wide.
Taxonomy
Eucalyptus pauciflora was first formally described in 1827 by Kurt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel from an unpublished description by Franz Sieber. Sprengel published the description in Systema Vegetabilium. The specific epithetpauciflora is from the Latinpauciflorus meaning "few-flowered". The term pauciflora is a misnomer, and may originate in an early collected specimen losing its buds in transit. Six subspecies are recognised by the Australian Plant Census as at 30 November 2019:
Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. acerinaRule occurs in Victoria;
Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. parvifructa Rule in Victoria;
Eucalyptus pauciflora Sieber ex Spreng. subsp. pauciflora is found in Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.
Distribution and habitat
Snow gum grows in woodland along the ranges and tablelands, in flat, cold sites above from the far south-east of Queensland, through New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, and Victoria, to near Mount Gambier in South Australia and Tasmania. In Tasmania the species hybridises with Eucalyptus coccifera and Eucalyptus amygdalina.
Ecology
Snow gum is amongst the hardiest of all eucalyptus species, surviving the severe winter temperatures of the Australian Alps. The species regenerates from seed, by epicormic shoots below the bark, and from lignotubers. It is the most cold-tolerant species of eucalyptus, with E. pauciflora subsp. niphophila surviving temperatures down to and year-round frosts. It has been introduced to Norway.
Use in horticulture
In cultivation in the UK, Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. niphophila and Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. debeuzevillei have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
