Eucalyptus sweedmaniana
Eucalyptus sweedmaniana is a sprawling to prostrate mallee that is endemic to a small area in the Cape Arid National Park in Western Australia. It has smooth, silvery grey bark, broadly lance-shaped, glossy green adult leaves, single red, pendulous flower buds in leaf axils, pink flowers and prominently winged fruit. Description. "Eucalyptus sweedmaniana" is a sprawling or prostrate mallee that grows to a height of about , a width of and forms a lignotuber. It has smooth, shiny silvery grey bark that fades to dull grey. Young plants have reddish green, lance-shaped to elliptical leaves that are  long and wide on a petiole long. Adult leaves are the same shade of glossy green on both sides, broadly lance-shaped, long and wide on thick, flattened petiole long. The flower buds are arranged singly in leaf axils on a down-curved, winged peduncle. The mature flower buds are red, square in cross section with prominent wings, with a red, pyramid-shaped operculum. Flowering has been observed from November to February and the flowers are pink. The fruit is a woody, cube-shaped to oblong capsule that is square in cross-section, long and wide with prominent wings and  the valves enclosed below the rim. Taxonomy. "Eucalyptus sweedmaniana" was first formally described in 2009 by Stephen Hopper and Nathan K. McQuoid and the description was published in "Australian Systematic Botany" from a specimen in the Cape Arid National Park in 2006. The specific epithet ("sweedmaniana") honours Luke Sweedman, a former curator of the Western Australian Seed Technology Centre, Western Australian Botanic Garden, Kings Park and Botanic Garden. Distribution. This mallee is only known from the lower coastal slopes of Mount Arid where it is exposed to significant salt spray. Conservation. "Eucalyptus sweedmaniana" is classified as "Priority Two" by the  Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife meaning that it is poorly known and from only one or a few locations.