Eucalyptus crebra narrow-leaved red ironbark

Buds, flowers, and fruit of Eucalyptus crebra, Palm Drive. Sairus Patel, 27 Jul 2022

Eucalyptus crebra, Palm Drive. Matt Ritter, ca 2006

The dark, deeply fissured, persistent bark and gray-green leaves of Eucalyptus crebra remind one of red ironbark, but – as its common name suggests – its leaves are smaller and narrower. In additional, its buds and fruit – arranged in axillary and terminal clusters – are tinier.

See three mature trees under the canopy of the great Torrey pine northwest of the intersection of Palm Drive and Arboretum Road. The one nearest the intersection grows on the street side of the chain and bollard barrier, between live oaks. The other two, closely set, are 80 feet north of it. A single tree is at the back of Hoover Tower, facing Green Library East, planted among a group of E. sideroxylon.

Three saplings were planted in the Ron Bracewell grove near the vernal pool in the Arboretum off Lasuen Drive on 11 February 2008. They were started from seed collected June 2006 from the Palm Drive specimens.

Dark, persistent bark of Eucalyptus crebra, Palm Drive. Sairus Patel, 27 Jul 2022

Eucalyptus crebra leaves, buds, fruit. John Rawlings

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

Related material: Eucalyptus checklist | Eucalypt voucher gallery.