Eucalyptus gomphocephala

Eucalyptus gomphocephala, known as tuart, is a species of tree, one of the six forest giants of Southwest Australia. Tuart forest was common on the Swan coastal plain, until the valuable trees were felled for export and displaced by the urban development around Perth, Western Australia. The wood is dense, hard, water resistant and resists splintering, and found many uses when it was available. Remnants of tuart forest occur in state reserves and parks, the tree has occasionally been introduced to other regions of Australia and overseas. Remaining trees are vulnerable to phytophthora dieback, an often fatal disorder, including a previously unknown species discovered during analysis of dead specimens. The tree is native to the southwest of Western Australia and typically grows to a height of 10 to 40 metres (33 to 131 ft). Taller trees are often found at the southern end of the trees range while smaller trees are found at the northern end. The crown of the tree can spread up to a width of 25 metres (82 ft). The habit of tuart is a tall single stemmed tree, but may form a low and multi-stemmed tree at the edge of stands in response to salinity and winds. Tuart has box-like rough bark over the length of the trunk and branches. The bark is fibrous and grey in colour and breaks into smaller flaky pieces. Leaves are stalked, alternate, with a lanceolate or falcate shape. The leaves are slightly discolorous to concolorous, glossy, light green and thin. The leaf blade is 90 to 160 millimetres (3.5 to 6.3 in) in length and often curved. White flowers appear in mid summer to mid autumn between January to April. Buds that are almost stalkless appear as clusters in groups of seven. The buds have swollen caps, said to resemble a small ice cream cone, that are around 8 to 10 mm (0.31 to 0.39 in) long. The flowers are formed in tight clusters made up of around seven flowers. These later form into fruits with a mushroom shape containing small red-brown seeds. The fruits are narrow and 13 to 25 mm (0.51 to 0.98 in) in length with a broad rim. The species was formally described by the botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, published in the third volume of his Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis (1828). The type collection was assembled by the botanist Jean-Baptiste Leschenault at the Vasse River during 1802, while serving with the Baudin expedition. In 1939, William Blakely and Henry Steedman described two varieties of this species in Contributions from the New South Wales National Herbarium but the named are listed as synonyms by the Australian Plant Census.The epithet gomphocephala is derived from gomphos, meaning 'club' and kephale, 'head', describing the rounded and overlapping shape of the operculum. The species is allied as a monophyletic arrangement within the most diverse eucalypt subgenus, Eucalyptus subgen. Symphyomyrtus, recognised as the sole species of it section. The Noongar peoples named the tree tuart or tooart, moorun or mouarn. The distribution range of the species is a narrow coastal corridor within the Swan Coastal Plain, extending inland 5 to 10 kilometres (3.1 to 6.2 mi), a continuous strip south from Yanchep to Busselton. This area has been intensively cleared for changes in agricultural practices, then urbanisation, so that the numbers of tuart trees and forest was greatly reduced after the establishment of the Swan River Colony.Outlying patches of the tree are found to the north of Yanchep as far as Geraldton and further inland where rivers intersect the range. The species has become naturalised in other places.