Eucalyptus alba (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Eucalyptus alba Reinw. ex Blume

Protologue: Bijdr. fl. Ned. Ind. 17: 1101 (1827).

Synonyms

Eucalyptus leucadendron Reinw. ex de Vriese (1856).

Vernacular names

• Poplar gum, khaki gum (En)
• Indonesia: ampupu
• Vietnam: bạch dàn trắng.

Distribution

Timor, Papua New Guinea and widespread in northern

Australia. Planted elsewhere in Malesia and mainland South-East Asia.

Uses

The wood is used for heavy-duty construction, as mine timber, for boat building, furniture, handles, sporting goods, agricultural implements, joinery, railway sleepers, poles and carvings but also often for fuelwood. The bark contains a high percentage of tannin.

Observations

A small to medium-sized deciduous tree of up to 26 m tall, bole often of poor form, up to 60 cm in diameter, bark smooth, with pink-red to whitish patches; juvenile leaves alternate, ovate to suborbicular, green, discolorous, adult leaves alternate, narrow to broadly lanceolate or ovate, 7-21 cm × 2-5 cm, acuminate, green, concolourous, petiole 10-33 mm long; inflorescence axillary, solitary, 7-flowered; flower buds globular to ovoid, operculum hemispherical, 3-5 mm × 4-7 mm; fruit hemispherical to obconical, 4-7 mm × 5-8 mm, with 3 or 4 exserted valves. E. alba grows on flat and undulating country, often near the coast or near watercourses, on heavy soil in woodland and open forest from sea-level to 700 m altitude. The density of the wood is 900-1010 kg/m³at 12% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.

Selected sources

52, 62, 63a, 64, 232, 322a, 343, 359, 540, 659.