BLACK BOX
Eucalyptus largiflorens
Plant Family
Myrtaceae
Alternative Common Names
swamp box, grey box, flooded box, river box, cooburn, ironbark, slaty gum, bastard box, murray box, river black box.
Medium sized tree 10m – 20m high, with a large spreading crown and drooping branches with rough bark to the thinnest branches. The bark is dark grey and fibrous or flaky, sometimes furrowed on the trunk.
Leaves - alternate, lanceolate, 6-12cm long, 1.5 – 2.7cm wide, somewhat thick, dull-green or grey.
Flowers - off-white, borne in clusters of 3-7, each cluster at the end of slender common stalk.
Fruit - hemispherical, about 5mm diameter, on a very short stalk, valves enclosed.
Flowering - spring-summer.
Indigenous uses - after soaking and drying the seeds were ground and eaten raw.
Habitat
Heavy clay soils of periodically flooded alluvial plains and along dry-lake margins, occurring in monospecific stands or in association with coolabah and river red gum; also in depressions and drainage lines in practically all communities.
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