Eucalyptus walshii

Eucalyptus walshii is a small, slender, pole-like tree that is endemic to Victoria, Australia. It has smooth bark, lance-shaped to egg-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven to eleven, white flowers and cup-shaped fruit.

Description
Eucalyptus walshii is a tree that typically grows to a height of 4-9 m and forms a lignotuber. It has smooth whitish to grey bark, with a stocking of rough fibrous or flaky bark on the lowest 1 m or less of the trunk. Young plants and coppice regrowth have elliptical to narrow lance-shaped leaves that are about 100 m long and 23 mm wide. Adult leaves are somewhat glossy, egg-shaped to lance-shaped, 70-100 mm long and 14-26 mm wide on a petiole 5-10 mm long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils in groups of seven, nine or eleven on an unbranched peduncle 7-11 mm long, the individual buds on pedicels 2-4 mm long. Mature buds are oval to spindle-shaped, 5-7 mm long and 3-4 mm wide with a conical operculum 3-4 mm long. Flowering occurs in autumn and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody, cup-shaped capsule 5-6 mm long and 4-5 mm wide with the valves below rim level.

Taxonomy and naming
Eucalyptus walshii was first formally described in 2004 by Kevin James Rule in the journal Muelleria from specimens collected near Broughton's Waterhole in the Little Desert National Park in 2002. The specific epithet honours botanist Neville Walsh of the National Herbarium of Victoria.

Distribution and habitat
This eucalypt is only known from a single population growing in mallee woodland on a low hill near the type location.