Silver dollar gum, red box

Trees, to 25 m; trunk gray or tan, smooth or rough; bark rough, fibrous, and persistent, or smooth and shed in flakes or irregular strips. Leaves: petiole 1–2.5 cm; blade grayish green, silver, or bluish green, round, elliptic, or ovate, 5–10 × 1.5–5 cm, surfaces occasionally glau­cous. Peduncles 1–4 cm. Inflorescences 5–7-flowered, terminal or axillary, umbels in panicles. Flowers: hypanthium ovoid to obconic, ca. 4 mm, length ca. 2 times calyptra; calyptra conic to hemispheric; stamens white; anthers rigid on filaments, adnate, absent on outer filaments. Capsules ovoid or subpyriform, 5–6 mm, to 6 mm wide, glaucous; valves 3 or 4, included.

Flowering winter–spring. Disturbed coastal urban areas; 0–200 m; introduced; Calif.; se Australia.

Eucalyptus polyanthemos is known from the San Joaquin Valley, Central Coast, San Francisco Bay Area, Outer South Coast Ranges, South Coast, Santa Cata­lina Islands, and Western Transverse Ranges.

Juvenile, adult, and transitional leaves are occasion­ally found in crowns of mature naturalized trees.