Variation in Eucalyptus cypellocarpa L. Johnson in Victoria, and a new taxon form the Grampian Ranges and Anglesea

Abstract

Patterns of variation in adult and seedling morphology, seedling growth and root/shoot ratios were assessed for populations of E. cypellocarpa, E. goniocalyx and equivocal populations from the Grampian Ranges and Anglesea. F1 hybrids of the two species were also produced to assist evaluation of a previous hypothesis of phantom hybrid origin. The Grampians populations were similar to E. cypellocarpa in adult morphology, but had distinctly different seedlings that were not the same as the F1 hybrids. The Anglesea population, although intermediate between E. cypellocarpa and E. goniocalyx in some adult characters, had the same seedling form, including root/shoot ratio, and the same bark type as the Grampians populations. The study provided no evidence to support the hypothesis of a phantom hybrid origin for the Grampians and Anglesea forms. A more parsimonious interpretation is evolution by the splitting of an ancestral taxon. The Grampians and Anglesea populations are described as E. alaticaulis sp. nov., with minor population variation being interpreted as a result of geographic disjunction.