Eucalyptus viridis green mallee

Dry fruit capsules of Eucalyptus viridis on Raimundo Way. Large cluster on top has 20 or more fruit. Sairus Patel, 7 Jul 2020

Widely planted in southern Australia, including as a street tree, this mallee type eucalyptus tends to have multiple slender trunks, rough-barked below and smoothly peeling above. It will regenerate from its basal lignotuber if cut back hard, a characteristic useful when management in tight spaces is required. Remarkably similar to E. pulchella, which you can see elsewhere on campus, in its very slender leaves (which may also smell pepperminty), buds, and clusters of small capsules in bunches of 7–11. E. pulchella has much more rounded opercula, however, and is clearly a single-trunked tree, not a mallee. The opercula of E. viridis are clearly conical and often a different color from the cup of the capsule, even though there is no operculum scar.

Our only example is a small straggly one a few feet north of the magnificent E. cylindrocarpa on Raimundo Way opposite Wing Place (map pin). E. megacornuta was reported to have been planted nearby, but has been removed.

Eucalyptus viridis voucher. Courtesy of Prof. Matt Ritter and Robert F. Hoover Herbarium, Cal Poly State University