>You seem to be able to identify species of all (?most) trees in which one
>might find our feathered companions. To me, they all look like eucalypts.
>
>However, I realise the importance of identifying habitat as accurately as
>possible and was wondering if you could recommend a comprehensive,
>user-friendly, but not too technical field guide which I might use in the
>identification of habitat and particular species.
In part answer to both Ralph Reid and Chris Tzaros - no, I didn't make that
name up! I work with
field botanists here all the time, and it rubs off. I'm reasonably botanically
competent myself
with most of the larger woody plants and some herbaceous plants as well -
occuptational hazard
really.
There are six subspecies of Yellow Gum listed for Victoria in Ross (2000) and
Cameron et al.
(1998). They are:
E. leucoxylon ssp. leucoxylon - Yellow Gum (Blue Gum in SA)
E. leucoxylon ssp. connata - Melbourne Yellow Gum
E. leucoxylon ssp. megalocarpa - Large-fruited Yellow Gum
E. leucoxylon ssp. bellarinensis - Bellarine Yellow Gum
E. leucoxylon ssp. pruinosa - Inland Yellow Gum
E. leucoxylon ssp. stephaniae - ? Inland Yellow Gum
The common names or RENs used are a bit more arbitrary, but Melbourne Yellow
Gum (or Melbourne
Yellow-gum) for ssp. connata is one used by botanists from the Department of
Natural Resources &
Environment (DNRE) (J. Ross pers. comm). The only other one I know much about
is ssp.
bellarinensis, which is endemic to the Bellarine Peninsula, and now confined to
the Ocean Grove
area east of Geelong.
I don't know of any comprehensive field guide which deals with all of the
varieties and subspecies
of Eucalyptus - you'll have to hang out with botanists to get a handle on that
:-) The various
published state floras probably deal with these subspecific taxa but do not
give them RENs ...
Brooker & Kleinig (1983) deal with a couple of these: the nominate E. l. ssp.
leucoxylon they call
Yellow Gum (Blue Gum in SA), E. l. ssp. megalocarpa is Large-fruited Yellow (or
Blue) Gum, and E.
l. ssp. pruinosa is the Inland Yellow (or Blue) Gum.
References
Brooker, M.I.H. & Kleinig, D.A. (1983). 'Field Guide to Eucalypts: volume 4,
south-eastern
Australia.' (Inkata Press, Melbourne).
Cameron, D., Cross, F., Leech, S. & Wierzbowski, P. (1999). 'Victorian Flora
Species List:
including vascular and non-vascular taxa.' (DNRE, Heidelberg).
Ross, J.H. (2000). 'A census of the vascular plants of Victoria. Sixth
edition.' (Royal Botanic
Gardens, South Yarra).
Lawrie
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lawrie Conole
2/37 Myrnong Crescent, Ascot Vale Vic 3032 AUSTRALIA
AH 03 9370 3928 Mob 0419 588 993
Senior Zoologist
Ecology Australia Pty Ltd
88 B Station Street, Fairfield Vic 3078 AUSTRALIA
www.ecologyaustralia.com.au
BH 03 9489 4191 Mob 0419 588 993 Fax 03 9481 7679
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
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