Eucalyptus × conjuncta

Eucalyptus × conjuncta is a species of flowering plant that is endemic to a small area of New South Wales. It is a tree with rough stringy bark, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of eleven or more, white flowers and cup-shaped or hemispherical fruit. It is considered to be a stabilised hybrid between E. eugenioides and E. sparsifolia.

Description
Eucalyptus × conjuncta is a tree with rough, stringy bark on the trunk to the smallest branches. Young plants have leaves that are lance-shaped with finely scalloped edges, up to 80 mm long and 15 mm wide. Adult leaves are the same bright, glossy green on both sides, lance-shaped, 90-140 mm long and 12-22 mm wide on a petiole 9-13 mm long. The flower buds are borne in groups of eleven or more on a thin, unbranched peduncle 5-10 mm long, the individual buds on a thin pedicel 1-4 mm long. Mature buds are oval to spindle-shaped, 5-7 mm long and 2-3 mm wide with a conical operculum about as long and wide as the floral cup. The flowers are white and the fruit is a woody cup-shaped to hemispherical capsule 4-6 mm long and 6-8 mm wide with the valves level with the rim or extending beyond it.

Taxonomy and naming
This eucalypt was first formally described in 1990 by Lawrie Johnson and Ken Hill from a specimen Hill collected from near the Murrurundi golf club. The description was published in the journal Telopea. The authors noted that this appears to be a stabilised hybrid between E. eugenioides and E. sparsifolia and the name accepted by the Australian Plant Census is Eucalyptus × conjuncta. The specific epithet (conjuncta) is a Latin word meaning "connected" or "united", in reference to the intermediate features of this species.

Distribution and habitat
Eucalyptus × conjuncta grows in woodland on poor soil usually on sloping sites and is only known from near Murrurundi.