White glandular bud caps Greetings fellow Foxies,
The arboretum is a great place to see how diverse eucalypts can be, with one feature being whether/how they shed their bark each summer.
Eucalyptus leptopoda; Merredin mallee (formerly Tammin mallee, pegs 194 to 199) is common on gravel and sandplain kwongan soils in the eastern wheatbelt. These soils have just a few eucalypts because of an unpenetrable silcrete hardpan in the deep subsoil. Merredin mallees occur in spots where their roots have gone through cracks in the hardpan. They have grey/white smooth bark with darker strips of old bark. Long shreds of shed bark up to 3 metres long hang down from upper branches of plants in the arboretum, to reveal light-copper new bark that gradually turns grey-white.
Mallees are adapted to cope with regular fires by regenerating from a large lignotuber root. The ones herehave yet to develop these.They have shaggy-bark stem bases and long spindly stems.
In February/March profuse white flowers attract bees and flower wasps.
For more information on eucalypts you can’t go past the brilliant book "Eucalypts of Western Australia’s wheatbelt" by Malcolm French.
The arboretum is a great place to see how diverse eucalypts can be, with one feature being whether/how they shed their bark each summer.
Eucalyptus leptopoda; Merredin mallee (formerly Tammin mallee, pegs 194 to 199) is common on gravel and sandplain kwongan soils in the eastern wheatbelt. These soils have just a few eucalypts because of an unpenetrable silcrete hardpan in the deep subsoil. Merredin mallees occur in spots where their roots have gone through cracks in the hardpan. They have grey/white smooth bark with darker strips of old bark. Long shreds of shed bark up to 3 metres long hang down from upper branches of plants in the arboretum, to reveal light-copper new bark that gradually turns grey-white.
Mallees are adapted to cope with regular fires by regenerating from a large lignotuber root. The ones herehave yet to develop these.They have shaggy-bark stem bases and long spindly stems.
In February/March profuse white flowers attract bees and flower wasps.
For more information on eucalypts you can’t go past the brilliant book "Eucalypts of Western Australia’s wheatbelt" by Malcolm French.
 In wodjil heath at Merredin |  Bark sheds in long strips |  attracts flower wasps in February March |
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