General Description:

With about 800 species, Eucalyptus is the second largest genus in the Australian flora and range from medium shrubs to huge forest trees.  The three genera Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora are known collectively as 'eucalypts' and they dominate many Australian landscapes.  They are only absent (or at least reduced in diversity) in rainforests and truly arid environments.

Eucalyptus kruseana is a straggly mallee in its native habitat – on rocky hills in an arid environment. It is a very distinctive species with its closely-spaced, stemless rounded leaves and greenish yellow flowers. It is not closely related to any other species. The bark is firmly held at the base of the trunk and is smooth on the limbs, bronze to coppery and grey, shedding in ribbons.

Bookleaf mallee is a popular ornamental in drier parts of southern Australia and in central Australia because of its mallee habit, flower colour and unusual leaves. It forms a lignotuber and would be expected to respond to pruning. In cultivation, it forms an attractive small tree which flowers prolifically in late summer in Perth.

Propagation is from seed which germinates readily.

* EPBC Act = Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999;
ROTAP = Rare or Threatened Australian Plants (Briggs and Leigh, 1988)
For further information refer the Australian Plants at Risk page