Tree identification manual - North East Downs Landcare Group

Narrow leaf box, grey box
Botanical name
Eucalyptus microcarpa
Areas
1 & 5
Usual flowering time
January - February
Distribution
Occurs on gentle slopes and plains and occasionally, in the driest part of the range, on dry stream beds and
banks.
Description
Height: Commonly 15-25 metres.
Bark: Box-type on the trunk and larger limbs, fine, grey, upper branches smooth, at first often pink or
whitish weathering to grey.
Leaves: Smallish, glossy narrow and drooping.
Inflorescence: Smooth flowers in bunches, bud caps are short and bluntly pointed.
Fruit: Small and rounded with valves concealed.
Distinctive features
Typical fine box-type bark on trunk and large limbs. Small buds and fruits. Found on heavier soil types.
Leaves are narrower than grey box or fuzzy box.
Vegetation community
Layered open forest to shrubby woodland and open forests containing ironbark, grey box, spotted gum and
yellow box.
Associated soils
Found on rather heavy alluvial soils, clay, loams and better quality sandy loams, sometimes with limestone in
the deeper horizons. The communities associated have been cleared or partially cleared to improve pasture
growth and there is a threat to erosion from overgrazing.
Local example
There is a specimen just off the Goombungee-Kingsthorpe Rd on Boodua-Meringandan Rd opposite the
telephone exchange.
NOTES: Useful for fencing timber and sleepers. Not bad as a shade tree of limited use for honey production.
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