Inland grey-box

Eucalyptus microcarpa, commonly called grey box, is a medium to tall spreading evergreen tree in the Myrtaceae family endemic to inland south-eastern Australia. Plants typically grow to 25 metres tall, sometimes with several trunks, and develop a substantial lignotuber from which they can resprout after fire. The trunk and lower branches are clad in rough, fibrous, dark grey to greyish-brown box bark, while the upper branches are smooth and whitish to cream-coloured. Adult leaves are glossy green, lance-shaped to falcate and 8 to 17 centimetres long. Small white flowers borne in compound axillary clusters of seven open between February and June, followed by characteristically small cup-shaped to hemispherical fruits 3 to 6 millimetres wide. The species dominates grey box grassy woodlands on loamy, often clay-rich soils from south-eastern Queensland and inland New South Wales through Victoria to South Australia; this ecological community is now listed as endangered under Australian federal law.