Eucalyptus insularis, commonly known as Twin Peak Island mallee, or North Twin Peak Island mallee, is a species of mallee that is endemic to a small area of southern Western Australia. It has mostly smooth bark, dull green, linear adult leaves, flower buds in group of between nine and twenty or more, white flowers and barrel-shaped fruit.
Description
Eucalyptus insularis is a mallee that typically grows to a height of and forms a lignotuber. It has smooth greyish bark, sometimes with rough, fibrous bark on larger stems. Young plants and coppice regrowth have sessile, oblong to lance-shaped leaves long and wide arranged in opposite pairs. Adult leaves are arranged alternately, the same dull green colour on both sides, linear in shape, long and wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils in groups of between nine and twenty or more on a pendulous peduncle long, the individual buds on pedicels long. Mature buds are oval, long and wide with a rounded to conical operculum. Flowering occurs in August and the flowers are white or creamy white. The fruit is a woody, barrel-shaped capsule long and wide with the valves near rim level.
Taxonomy and naming
Eucalyptus insularis was first formally described in 1974 by Ian Brooker from a specimen collected on North TwinPeak Island in the Recherche Archipelago and the description was published in the journal Nuytsia. The specific epithet is a Latin word meaning 'of an island', referring to the location of the type specimen. In 2014, Dean Nicolle and Ian Brooker described to subspecies of E. insularis and the names have been accepted by the Australian Plant Census:
Eucalyptus insularis subsp. continentalis D.Nicolle & Brooker a spreading malle with adult leaves wide;
Eucalyptus insularis Brooker subsp. insularis an erect, multi-stemmed malle with leaves wide.
Distribution and habitat
The Twin Peak Island mallee grows in closed shrubland and heath near granite outcrops. Subspecies continentalis is only known from two or three populations on the mainland in the Cape Le Grand National Park and subspecies insularis only grows on North Twin Peak Island.
