Common name: Red Box
Eucalyptus polyanthemos Schauer APNI* 
Description: Tree to 20 m high; bark smooth or persistent on lower trunk to full trunk and larger branches, grey with whitish patches, fibrous-flaky ('box'), smooth above, white or grey, shedding in short ribbons or flakes.
Juvenile leaves disjunct, orbiculate, dull grey-green to glaucous. Adult leaves disjunct, broad-lanceolate to elliptic or ovate, 4–9 cm long, 1.5–3.5 cm wide, grey-green or glaucous, dull, concolorous.
Conflorescence compound; umbellasters 7-flowered; peduncle terete, 5–10 mm long; pedicels terete, 2–5 mm long. Buds ovoid, clavate or shortly fusiform, glaucous, 4–5 mm long, 2–3 mm diam., scar present; calyptra hemispherical or conical, shorter and narrower than hypanthium. Outer stamens infertile; anthers cuboid.
Fruit hemispherical, conical or cylindrical, 4–7 mm long, 3–6 mm diam.; disc depressed; valves enclosed.
Distribution and occurrence: Widespread and abundant, in grassy or sclerophyll woodland on light shallow soils; south from Gulgong, with a small outlier in the upper Hunter Valley.
NSW subdivisions: SC, CT, ST, CWS, SWS
Other Australian states: Vic.
Text by K. Hill
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the subspecies | |
| 1 | Bark mostly smooth, shedding in large plates or scales, sometimes irregularly persistent on trunk | subsp. polyanthemos |
| Bark persistent on trunk and larger branches, `box' | subsp. vestita |
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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