Messmate

Eucalyptus obliqua, known as messmate or messmate stringybark, is a large evergreen tree in the family Myrtaceae endemic to southeastern Australia, occurring from southern Queensland through New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and southeastern South Australia. Mature trees commonly reach 30-50 m in height and can exceed 90 m in tall wet-forest stands, with a single straight bole supporting an open spreading crown. The bark is characteristic stringybark: thick, fibrous, deeply furrowed, persistent on the trunk and main branches, and pale grey-brown to russet. Juvenile leaves are opposite, ovate to broadly lanceolate, and dull blue-green; adult leaves are alternate, lanceolate to falcate, 8-15 cm long and 1.5-4 cm wide, with a markedly asymmetric (oblique, hence the name) base and a glossy mid-green colour. The flowers are creamy white, in axillary umbels of 7-15 buds, each operculum (cap) hemispherical and shorter than the floral tube. Capsular fruits are barrel-shaped to hemispherical, 5-9 mm in diameter, with deeply enclosed valves. The species inhabits dry sclerophyll forests, tall open forests, and wet-forest margins on a wide range of soils.