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Corymbia opaca; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2022-08-07

Corymbia opaca (D.J.Carr & S.G.M.Carr) K.D.Hill & L.A.S.Johnson

Desert Bloodwood; Plains Bloodwood

Myrtaceae · Northern Territory, South Australia +1

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Corymbia opaca (D.J.Carr & S.G.M.Carr) K.D.Hill & L.A.S.Johnson: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, D.J.Carr & S.G.M.Carr.

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Corymbia opaca, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY)Corymbia opaca, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY)Corymbia opaca, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY)Corymbia opaca, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY)Corymbia opaca, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY)Corymbia opaca, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY) 36 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
2.5°C
Record low -0.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
36°C
Jan at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
313mm
5 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
25–49DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes April to September (October to March at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Corymbia opaca, also known as desert bloodwood, is a species of tree that is endemic to northern Australia. It has rough bark on part or all of the trunk, lance-shaped leaves, club-shaped flower buds and urn-shaped fruit. Several parts of this plant are used by Aboriginal Australians in traditional medicine.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Corymbia opaca", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Corymbia

Corymbia, commonly known as bloodwoods, is a genus of about one hundred species of tree that, along with Eucalyptus, Angophora and several smaller groups, are referred to as eucalypts. Until 1990, corymbias were included in the genus Eucalyptus and there is still considerable disagreement among botanists as to whether separating them is valid. As of January 2020, Corymbia is an accepted name at the Australian Plant Census.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Corymbia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (228 mm of 305 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.4 °C against a yearly mean of 22.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

Rain

305 mm in the median year at the habitat, 228 mm of it October to March. Wettest months (2 at 47 mm), driest month August at 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 271 mm to 414 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 313 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 305 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 49 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 2.5 °C, the absolute minimum -0.8 °C, 2 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 44.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 6.1 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 5.3 °C to 12.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 36.2 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 40 to 50% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -55 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Corymbia opaca through the yearWarmest month January, mean daily high 36 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 6.1 °C; 305 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost44.7° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-0.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 25–49RH 40–50%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 66 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C36 / 35–3835 / 34–3633 / 31–3528 / 27–3323 / 22–2819 / 18–2419 / 18–2422 / 21–2728 / 26–3231 / 30–3634 / 32–3735 / 34–37
Night °C24 / 23–2623 / 22–2520 / 19–2416 / 15–2111 / 10–177 / 6–136 / 5–128 / 8–1513 / 12–1817 / 16–2220 / 19–2422 / 21–25
Rain mm47 / 40–9747 / 36–12136 / 26–5819 / 13–2318 / 13–2115 / 8–1812 / 7–155 / 3–88 / 4–1220 / 6–2434 / 18–4044 / 34–59
DLI49 / 47–5045 / 43–4641 / 40–4236 / 34–3729 / 27–3125 / 23–2827 / 25–2933 / 32–3640 / 39–4246 / 46–4848 / 48–5049 / 48–50
RH %42 / 40–5044 / 42–5243 / 42–4744 / 43–4548 / 44–4850 / 46–5148 / 44–4943 / 41–4440 / 38–4140 / 38–4141 / 40–4242 / 41–47
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 66 grid cells holding the 116 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2322:6131 (-26.125, 126.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 44.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 66 distinct grid cells holding 116 of the 116 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2322:6131 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -26.00_126.875, lapse-corrected -55 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 459 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNorthern Territory, South Australia, Western Australia · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-25.243, 131.169 · in the densest population, 72 records (57% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “desert or dry shrubland” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 127 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 116 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 17 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 288 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 11 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 127 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Corymbia opaca, photograph 1did not loadCorymbia opaca, photograph 2did not loadCorymbia opaca, photograph 3did not loadCorymbia opaca, photograph 4did not loadCorymbia opaca, photograph 5did not loadCorymbia opaca, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Eremophila christophori Eremophila christophori Dolomite Fuschia Bush Photo: CC BY, Petra HollandAcacia kempeana Acacia kempeana Witchetty-bush Photo: CC BY, Petra HollandLivistona mariae Livistona mariae Central Australian cabbage palm Photo: CC BY, Gary DicksonXerochrysum interiore Xerochrysum interiore Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Petra HollandHakea divaricata Hakea divaricata Needlewood Photo: CC BY, Petra HollandSolanum quadriloculatum Solanum quadriloculatum Tomato-bush Photo: CC BY, Em Lamond

Other Corymbia 17 in the reference

Corymbia aparrerinja Corymbia aparrerinja Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY, Petra HollandCorymbia calophylla Corymbia calophylla Redgum Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyCorymbia citriodora Corymbia citriodora Lemonscented gum Photo: CC0, author not statedCorymbia dunlopiana Corymbia dunlopiana Bristle-leaved Bloodwood Photo: CC BY, Thomas MesaglioCorymbia eximia Corymbia eximia Yellow bloodwood Photo: CC BY, Petra HollandCorymbia ficifolia Corymbia ficifolia Redflower gum Photo: CC BY, Shaun SwanepoelCorymbia gummifera Corymbia gummifera Red bloodwood Photo: CC BY, Carl RamirezCorymbia intermedia Corymbia intermedia Pink bloodwood Photo: CC BY, Scott W. GavinsCorymbia leichhardtii Corymbia leichhardtii Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY, Hannah HickliCorymbia maculata Corymbia maculata Spotted gum Photo: CC BY, Bryce Watts-ParkerCorymbia peltata Corymbia peltata Rusty-jacket Photo: CC BY, Michael HainsCorymbia ptychocarpa Corymbia ptychocarpa Swamp bloodwood Photo: CC BY, Donna Belder all 18 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Corymbia tumescens; Eucalyptus centralis; Eucalyptus corymbosa var. terminalis; Eucalyptus opaca; Eucalyptus orientalis and 4 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Corymbia terminalis: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Myrtaceae
Described by
(D.J.Carr & S.G.M.Carr) K.D.Hill & L.A.S.Johnson
Native to
Northern Territory, South Australia, Western Australia
Wild records
127 in range · 17 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21GBIF's key 10846427 is Corymbia opaca D.J.Carr & S.G.M.Carr; Kew accepts Corymbia opaca (D.J.Carr & S.G.M.Carr) K.D.Hill & L.A.S.Johnson, and the name is cited as Kew accepts it; its synonyms and common names are read from GBIF's Corymbia opaca (D.J.Carr & S.G.M.Carr) K.D.Hill & L.A.S.Johnson (5418466), which GBIF files under Corymbia terminalis (F.Muell.) K.D.Hill & L.A.S.Johnson (5418464) too
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-2110 read from GBIF's Corymbia opaca (D.J.Carr & S.G.M.Carr) K.D.Hill & L.A.S.Johnson (5418466), which GBIF files under Corymbia terminalis (F.Muell.) K.D.Hill & L.A.S.Johnson (5418464)
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 3 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -26.00_126.875, lapse-corrected -55 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21found by its label; its IPNI identifier 986293-1 is Kew's for Corymbia opaca (D.J.Carr & S.G.M.Carr) K.D.Hill & L.A.S.Johnson
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 2 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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