桉 an

Trees, to 20 m tall. Bark dark brown, rough and subfibrous, persistent. Branchlets ridged. Young leaves opposite, petiolate; leaf blade thickly ovate, ca. 11 × 7 cm, leathery. Mature leaves with a 1.5-2.5 cm petiole; leaf blade ovate-lanceolate, 8-17 × 3-7 cm, oblique, thickly leathery, both surfaces glandular, secondary veins numerous, conspicuous, and at an angle of ca. 80° from midvein, intramarginal veins 1-1.5 mm from margin. Inflorescences axillary, simple, umbels 4-8-flowered; peduncle less than 2.5 cm, compressed. Flower buds 1.4-2 × 0.7-1 cm. Hypanthium semiglobose to obconic, 7-9 × 6-8 mm; stipe 0-9 mm, angular; calyptra ± as long as hypanthium, apex constricted into a beak. Stamens 1-1.2 cm; anthers elliptic, dehiscing longitudinally. Capsule pot-shaped, sometimes somewhat constricted in middle, 1-1.5 cm; disk broad; valves 3 or 4, included in hypanthium. Fl. almost year-round.

Cultivated in Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, and Zhejiang [native to E Australia].