Factsheet - Corymbia Citriodora

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Corymbia citriodora
Description | Notes | Flow ering Time | Origin of Name
Lemon-scented gum, Spotted gum

Corymbia citriodora (Hook.)

K.D.Hill & L.A.S.Johnson, Telopea 6:
388 (1995).
Eucalyptus citriodora Hook. in

T.L.Mitchell, J. Exped. Tropical
Australia 235 (1848).E. maculata
var. citriodora (Hook.) F.M.Bailey,
Qld Fl. 2: 634 (1900). E.
melissiodora Lindley in T.L.Mitchell,
J. Exped. Tropical Australia 235
(1848); T: Queensland: subtrop.
New Holland [Balmy Creek], 16 July
1846, T.L.Mitchell 153; holo: K; iso:
CGE, MEL.
E. maculata var. citriodora

F.M.Bailey, Syn. Queensland Fl.
181 (1883), nom. illeg., non (Hook.)
F.M.Bailey. T: not designated.
E. maculata var. citriodora Kinney,

Eucalyptus 89 (1895) nom. illeg.,
non (Hook.) F.M.Bailey. T: not
designated.
Eucalyptus variegata F.Muell., J.

Linn. Soc., Bot. 3: 88 (1859);
Corymbia variegata (F.Muell.)
K.D.Hill & L.A.S.Johnson, Telopea 6:
389 (1995). Corymbia citriodora
subsp. variegata (F.Muell.)
A.R.Bean & M.W.McDonald,
Austrobaileya 5: 735 (2000). T:
Queensland, Burnett River, 1856,
F.Mueller s.n.; holo: MEL; iso: K.
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Description
Tree to 50 m tall. Forming a
lignotuber.
Bark smooth throughout, white to
pink or coppery, often powdery,
shedding in thin curling flakes,
mottling of trunk often not
pronounced.
Juvenile growth (coppice or
field seedlings to 50 cm): stem
rounded in cross-section, scabrid;
juvenile leaves always petiolate,
opposite for 2 or 3 pairs then
alternate, ovate to lanceolate, 14–
21 cm long, 4.5–8 cm wide, the
base usually peltate for many
nodes, green; petiole and lamina
scabrid for many nodes.
Adult leaves alternate, petiole 1–
2.5 cm long; blade narrowly
lanceolate to falcate, (7)10–23 cm
long, 0.6–2.8(3.5) cm wide, base
tapering to petiole, concolorous,
glossy, green, strongly penniveined,
very densely reticulate,
intramarginal vein parallel to and
just within margin, oil glands island.
Leaves lemon-scented when
crushed or not so.
Inflorescences axillary compound,
peduncles 0.3–1 cm long; buds 3
per umbel, pedicels 0.1–0.6 cm
long. Mature buds obovoid to
pyriform, 0.6–1 cm long, 0.5–0.7 cm wide, green to creamy, usually smooth, scar usually absent (outer
operculum held to or almost to flowering, operculum scar therefore obvious only at late bud
development if at all), operculum rounded to conical or slightly beaked, stamens inflexed, anthers
cuboid or cuneate, versatile, dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits (non-confluent), style long, stigma
blunt or mop-like, locules 3, the placentae each with 5 vertical ovule rows (sometimes indistinct).
Flowers white.
Fruit pedicellate (pedicels 0.1–0.7 cm long), urceolate or barrel-shaped, 0.8–1.5 cm long, 0.7–1.2 cm
wide, disc descending, valves 3, enclosed.
Seed reddish black, glossy, 2.3–5 mm long, boat-shaped (flattened with a slight dorsal keel), dorsal
surface smooth, not winged, hilum ventral.
Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons reniform to orbicular; stems rounded in
cross-section, setose/scabrid; leaves always petiolate with peltate insertion of petiole on lamina for at
least 15 nodes, opposite for ca 3 pairs then alternating, ovate to lanceolate, 5–15 cm long, 2–8 cm
wide, discolorous, dull, green. Leaves setose to scabrid on both sides and on petiole for more than 15
nodes.
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Notes
A tall tree from temperate and tropical eastern Australia, found north from Coffs Harbour, New South
Wales, throughout coastal and montane eastern and central Queensland inland to Chinchilla, the
Carnarvon Range, Great Dividing Range east of Tambo, east from Townsville to Hughenden, and
further north to Cooktown and Lakeland Downs on southern Cape York Peninsula. It prefers lighter
loamy soils or skeletal soils and occurs as a component of dry sclerophyll forest and woodlands in hilly
country. Corymbia citriodora has smooth, uniform to ± mottled bark whitish to coppery in season, and a
conspicuously narrow-leaved crown which, in northern populations, is strongly lemon-scented. Pear-
shaped buds are borne in clusters of 3 aggregated into compound inflorescences borne in the axils of
leaves, whilst fruit are urn-shaped to barrel-shaped and to 0.7-1.2 cm wide and relatively thick-walled.
Seeds are flattish and have a median dorsal keel (boat-shaped). Juvenile leaves are setose and have
peltate leaf bases.
Corymbia citriodora is very similar to C. maculata, differing only in having slightly narrower crown
leaves, less mottled bark and juvenile leaves that are still setose to scabrid (feel rough) on
comparatively taller coppice growth. In C. maculata foliage is never lemon-scented, the juvenile leaves,
whilst scabrid at first, soon become smooth on moderately low regrowth, whilst the bark is spotted due
to the irregular pattern of shedding. Corymbia maculata is found from Taree south to Bega in New
South Wales and disjunctly in the Mottle Range in eastern Victoria.
Corymbia citriodora and C. maculata both differ from a third species of spotted gum, C. henryi, found
from the greater Brisbane area in Queensland south to Grafton in New South Wales. Corymbia henryi,
described by Stan Blake in 1977, has generally larger and coarser juvenile and adult leaves and larger
buds and fruit though the ranges in dimensions do overlap. In addition, with C. henryi fewer juvenile
leaves have peltate leaf-bases than the other spotted gums.
In the classification of Brooker (2000) this species, as Eucalyptus citriodora, is placed in Eucalyptus
subgenus Corymbia series Maculatae (the spotted gums). In their revision of the bloodwoods and ghost
gums Hill & Johnson (1995) named this species Corymbia citriodora, in genus Corymbia section
Politaria (the spotted gums).
Hill & Johnson (ibid. pages 389–90) segregated another species, Corymbia variegata, from C.
citriodora, on the basis of leaves not being lemon-scented, combined with slight differences in juvenile
and adult leaf dimensions and a more southerly distribution (from Coffs Harbour, New South Wales
north to Maryborough, Carnarvon Range and Chinchilla in Queensland). McDonald & Bean (2000)
reduced the status of C. variegata to C. citriodora subsp. variegata stating that the main
difference was the absence of lemon-scent in foliage of subsp. variegata. Until quite recently subsp.
variegata (as E. variegata F.Muell.) was regarded as belonging to E. maculata (see for example
Chippendale (1988), Brooker & Kleinig (1994)). In EUCLID, C. variegata is included within a broader
concept of C. citriodora. Further discussion of the taxonomic background can be found in the
references cited. The degree of genetic and morphological difference between these spotted gum
species and subspecies is slight indeed and is discussed in some detail in the following references:
Lamour et al. (2000), Larsen (1965), McDonald et al. (2000).
Historically Mueller (1879, third decade) stated "E. citriodora can only be considered a variety of E.
maculata, differing merely in the exquisite lemon-scent of its leaves....". and he included both it and his
1859 species E. variegata in synonymy with the earlier described E. maculata.
In EUCLID we follow Hill & Johnson's view restricting Corymbia maculata to New South Wales and
eastern Victoria but treat C. variegata as a synonym of C. citriodora (in effect a citronellal-free
chemotype of that species). All spotted gum species are important and well known in forestry,
silviculture and in horticulture and there is considerable merit in recognizing specific distinction between
the three core forms C. citriodora, C. maculata and C. henryi.
Botanists who want to go further and distinguish the two chemotypes of C. citriodora and C. maculata
may find the following short key useful:
1. Foliage with strong lemon-scent, bark mostly not mottled: C. citriodora subsp. citriodora
1a. Foliage not lemon-scented, bark mottled
2. Seedling/juvenile leaves still with peltate leaf-bases at node 10: C. citriodora subsp. variegata
2a. Seedling/juvenile leaves mostly lacking peltate leaf-bases by node 9: C. maculata

MORE ABOUT CORYMBIA
MORE ABOUT SPOTTED GUMS
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Flowering Time
Flowering has been recorded in January, April, May, June, July, August, October and December.
Corymbia citriodora is an important forest tree, in demand for structural timber and for honey
production. It also is popular in horticulture both within Australia and overseas.
Plants of C. citriodora are naturalized in the Darling Range near Mundaring, Western Australia, and
also in suburban Sydney, New South Wales, having spread from plantings. In Kings Park, Perth, has a
famous, beautiful avenue of this species planted many years ago, but it has spread to become a
serious weed there also (Hussey et al., 1997).
Origin of Name
Corymbia citriodora: from the Latin citriodorus, lemon-scented.
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home | about eucalypts | about EUCLID | browse species | glossary | references

Corymbia citriodora (Hook.)

Eucalyptus citriodora Hook. in

E. maculata var. citriodora

E. maculata var. citriodora Kinney,

Eucalyptus variegata F.Muell., J.

2a. Seedling/juvenile leaves mostly lacking peltate leaf-bases by node 9: C. maculata

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