The rose mallee is a low spreading mallee growing to 4 m high (DPAW 2006) with smooth
greyish brown bark and whitish-grey branches (DEC 2006). The leaf is round to heart-shaped,
usually pointed at the tip, 8 cm long by 8 cm wide, and has a distinctive blue-grey colour. The
leaves lack petioles (stalks) and are usually arranged in opposite pairs, often clasping the
stems. The pendulous flower buds are grey, to 5.5 cm long by 4 cm wide with the pointed cap
longer than the base. The staminous flowers (flowers with a profusion of showy stamens) are
large, to 7.5 cm in breadth, bright red, or rarely creamy yellow to white (DEC 2006), borne on
long thick peduncles to 3.5 cm long and are usually solitary but may have up to three flowers per
inflorescence (group of flowers). The capsules (fruits) are woody, hemispherical to top-shaped,
to 3 cm long by 5.5 cm wide with protruding valves. The dark brown seeds are winged (DEC
2006).
The stalked rose mallee is easily distinguished from the rose mallee by its sometimes alternate,
shortly petiolate (stalked) yellowish green leaves and cordate to lanceolate in shape. The buds
have a more orbicular, unbeaked budcap and longer calyx tube (DEC 2006).
rose mallee |
Eucalyptus rhodantha
Status: Vulnerable on the EPBC Act list
Government evidence of impact of climate change:
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Australian Government, Conservation Advice, Eucalyptus rhodantha
Potential threats to the species are loss; fragmentation and degradation of subpopulations or habitat from chemical spray drift from adjacent agricultural land and increasing surface soil salinity and fire occurring too infrequently.
Fire Low frequency potential There is a potential that a low frequency of sufficiently intense of sufficiently current fires burning through given rose mallee subpopulations may intense fire result in ongoing low seedling recruitment in those subpopulations and; potentially; to their decline (Ajduk pers. comm. 2016 Brown pers. comm. 2017 DEC 2006).
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