Eucalyptus creta

Eucalyptus creta is a mallet or tree that typically grows to a height of 3–15 m (9.8–49.2 ft) but does not form a lignotuber. It has smooth, shiny, yellowish, greenish or brownish to copper-coloured bark. Adult leaves are narrow lance-shaped, the same glossy green on both sides, 55–132 mm (2.2–5.2 in) long and 12–35 mm (0.47–1.38 in) wide on a petiole 8–18 mm (0.31–0.71 in) long. The flower buds are arranged in groups of three in leaf axils on a peduncle 1–3 mm (0.039–0.118 in) long, the individual buds sessile. Mature buds are oval, 15–22 mm (0.59–0.87 in) long and 14–20 mm (0.55–0.79 in) wide with a wing on two sides of the floral cup and a beaked operculum. Flowering occurs in May and the flowers are white to creamy yellow. The fruit is a woody, hemispherical to shallow cup-shaped capsule with two wings along the sides and the valves at the same level as the rim or extended beyond it.[2][3][4][5]

Eucalyptus creta was first formally described in 1991 by Lawrie Johnson and Ken Hill from a specimen collected north of Mount Ney, north-east of Esperance.[4][6] The specific epithet (creta) is a Latin word meaning "grow" or "increase",[7] "referring to the buds, flowers and fruit".[4]

Large-fruited gimlet is locally common in a restricted area north-east of Esperance in the Esperance Plains and Mallee biogeographic regions, where it grows on calcareous plains in sandy loam or clay with little understorey vegetation.[3][5]

This eucalypt is classified as "Priority Three" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife[3] meaning that it is poorly known and known from only a few locations but is not under imminent threat.[8]

• List of Eucalyptus species