Eucalyptus socialis

Eucalyptus socialis is a multi-stemmed mallee of the Myrtaceae family, typically growing 3 to 10 metres tall from a stout woody underground lignotuber, with several smooth, slender trunks bearing pale grey to coppery, deciduous bark that sheds in long ribbons or strips to reveal a smooth, pale, sometimes greenish or pinkish underbark. The juvenile leaves are opposite, sessile or shortly stalked, ovate to broadly lanceolate, and dull blue-green, while the adult leaves are alternate, petiolate, narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate, 6 to 13 centimetres long and 8 to 25 millimetres wide, glossy green on both surfaces and aromatic with eucalypt oils. Inflorescences are simple axillary umbels of 7 to 11 buds on a thick, flattened peduncle; the buds are ovoid to cylindrical with a conical to beaked operculum, opening to creamy-white flowers with abundant stamens. The fruit is a cup-shaped to barrel-shaped woody capsule 5 to 8 millimetres long. Native to inland southern Australia, where it dominates mallee shrubland on sandy and loamy soils.