Eucalyptus bunyip

Eucalyptus bunyip is a rare, slender tree that is endemic to a small area near Tonimbuk in Victoria. It has smooth, light coloured bark, glossy green egg-shaped to broadly lance-shaped adult leaves, club-shaped buds arranged in groups of seven, white flowers and bell-shaped fruit on a relatively long pedicel.

Description
Eucalyptus bunyip is a slender tree typically growing to a height of about 40 m with smooth, whitish to light brown or yellowish bark with rough corky bark at the base of the trunk. The leaves on young plants are egg-shaped to lance-shaped, 40-60 mm long and 16-30 mm wide on a petiole 10-20 mm long. Later, intermediate leaves are up to 80 mm long and 55 mm wide. Mature trees have large numbers of intermediate leaves in the crown. The adult leaves are broadly lance-shaped to egg-shaped, 100-170 mm long and 18-32 mm wide on a petiole 18-32 mm long. They are more or less the same colour on both surfaces. The flower buds are arranged in groups of seven in leaf axils on a thin, delicate peduncle 9-14 mm long, about 1 mm in diameter, the individual buds on a pedicel about the same length as the buds. The mature buds are club-shaped to slightly diamond-shaped, 7-9 mm long and 2.5-3.5 mm wide with a slightly beaked operculum. Flowering occurs in autumn and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody, more or less hemispherical capsule up to 6 mm long and 5 mm wide on a slender pedicel 6-10 mm long.

Taxonomy and naming
Eucalyptus bunyip was first formally described in 2012 by Kevin James Rule and the description was published in the journal Muelleria from a specimen collected in the Bunyip State Park. The specific epithet (bunyip) is a reference to the type location.

Distribution and habitat
This eucalypt is a rare tree that grows in the valley floors on the Diamond and Black Snake Creeks in the Bunyip State Park.