Australian Native Plants

  Eucalyptus pruinosa (Silver Box)


Eucalyptus pruinosa photo
Eucalyptus pruinosa tree

Photograph by Mark Marathon. Some rights reserved.    (view image details)

Eucalyptus pruinosa photo
Eucalyptus pruinosa foliage

Photograph by Mark Marathon. Some rights reserved.    (view image details)

Eucalyptus pruinosa photo
Eucalyptus pruinosa foliage

Photograph by MargaretRDonald. Some rights reserved.    (view image details)



Credits:
Description, Habitat and Distribution information is sourced from: G.M.Chippendale (2017) Eucalyptus pruinosa. In: Flora of Australia. Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of the Environment and Energy, Canberra. https://profiles.ala.org.au/opus/foa/profile/Eucalyptus%20pruinosa Licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license.




SILVER BOX FACTS

distribution map showing range of Eucalyptus pruinosa in Australia

Map is from The Atlas of Living Australia web site, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia License


Common Name
Silver Box

Description
The Silver Box is a tree to 10 m, but often a mallee to 3 m or more. Bark rough, flaky throughout, light brown to grey. Juvenile leaves opposite, ovate or broadly lanceolate, glaucous, concolorous. Adult leaves broadly ovate to elliptic-ovate, cordate, apiculate; lamina 5-13 cm long, 2.5-9 cm wide, grey-green to pruinose; lateral veins at 50° -60° ; intramarginal vein double, one confluent with margin, the other up to 3 mm from margin; petiole absent. Umbels 7-flowered; peduncle slightly flattened to terete, 12-25 mm long; pedicels 5-10 mm long. Buds fusiform to pyriform, pruinose; operculum conical, sometimes slightly rostrate, 4-6 mm long, 3-6 mm wide; hypanthium obconical, 4-7 mm long, 3-6 mm wide. Fruits cylindrical to almost obconical, 7-10 mm long, 6-8 mm wide, glaucous when young; disc narrow, descending; valves 3-5, just exserted.

Habitat
Grows mostly on sandplains but on some ridges and low hills, in gravelly sand and clay in open woodland.

Distribution
Occurs widely in northern Australia from Derby, W.A., through N.T. to Qld, but absent from most of Cape York Peninsula.

Growth Characteristics
Height: 5m - 8m
Spread: 3m - 6m



Classification
Class:Magnoliopsida
Order:Myrtales
Family:Myrtaceae
Genus:Eucalyptus
Species:pruinosa
Common Name:Silver Box


Relatives in same Genus
  Eucalyptus acaciiformis
  Eucalyptus accedens
  Eucalyptus acies
  Eucalyptus albens
  Eucalyptus bancroftii
  Eucalyptus baxteri
  Eucalyptus caleyi
  Eucalyptus camaldulensis
  Eucalyptus camphora
  Eucalyptus cloeziana
  Eucalyptus crebra
  Eucalyptus crenulata
  Eucalyptus curtisii
  Eucalyptus dealbata
  Eucalyptus dumosa
  Eucalyptus eugenioides
  Eucalyptus forrestiana
  Eucalyptus goniocalyx
  Eucalyptus grandis
  Eucalyptus intertexta
  Eucalyptus largiflorens
  see A-Z list for more ...