Eucalyptus ammophila

Eucalyptus ammophila, commonly known as the sandplain red gum, is a mallee that is endemic to central and southern Queensland. It has rough fibrous bark near the base and smooth greyish and orange to bronze bark higher up. It has lance-shaped leaves, yellow or creamy flower buds in groups of between seven and eleven, white flowers and hemispherical fruit with strongly raised valves.

Description
Eucalyptus ammophila is a mallee that grows to 6 m high, rarely a small, multistemmed tree, and forms a lignotuber. The trunk has rough, fibrous, greyish brown bark and the upper parts of the trunk and the branches have smooth greyish and orange to bronze-coloured bark. Young plants and coppice regrowth have square stems and broad lance-shaped to egg-shaped leaves that are 60-85 mm long and 22-36 mm wide with a short petiole. Adult leaves are lance-shaped, 65-135 mm long and 15-25 mm wide with a petiole 7-25 mm long. Both sides of the leaf are the same dull green, although bluish green at first.

The flowers are arranged in groups of between seven and eleven in leaf axils on a peduncle 5-12 mm long, each flower on a pedicel about 2 mm long. The mature flower buds are oval to spindle-shaped, yellow or cream-coloured, 8-9 mm long and about 5 mm wide. The operculum is cone-shaped and about 6 mm long. The fruit is a hemispherical capsule 3-5 mm long and 6-9 mm wide with the four, sometimes five, strongly raised valves.

Taxonomy and naming
Eucalyptus ammophila was first formally described in 1994 by Ian Brooker and Andrew Slee from a specimen collected in the Maranoa region of Queensland, and the description was published in the journal Austrobaileya. The specific epithet (ammophila) means "sand-loving".

Distribution and habitat
The sandplain red gum grows on red or orange sandplains in central and southern Queensland, including areas near Charleville, Yalleroi Jericho and the White Mountains.