Species
+

Eucalyptus leucoxylon F.Muell.

Blue Gum, Desert Blue Gum, Large-fruited South Australian Blue Gum, Scribbly Blue Gum

Climate known 110 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Eucalyptus leucoxylon, commonly known as yellow gum, blue gum or white ironbark, is a species of small to medium-sized tree that is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia. It has smooth yellowish bark with some rough bark near the base, lance-shaped or curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of three and cylindrical, barrel-shaped or shortened spherical fruit. A widely cultivated species, it has white, red or pink flowers.

Text from Wikipedia, “Eucalyptus leucoxylon”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus is a genus of more than 700 species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. Most species of Eucalyptus are trees, often mallees, and a few are shrubs. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including Corymbia and Angophora, they are commonly known as eucalypts or "gum trees". More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Eucalyptus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Myrtaceae
Described by
F.Muell.
Native to
New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria
Wild records
1823 in range· 1665 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Feb, mean day; nights 15 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
508mm/yr
10 wet months · peak Aug 66 mm (CHELSA)
Light
13–49DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to May in the northern hemisphere (May to November at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 508 mm a year, wettest August at 66 mm, driest February at 20 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 49 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 1.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Eucalyptus leucoxylon var. rosea.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to May in the northern hemisphere (May to November at the habitat, southern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (374 mm of 508 mm) falls in May to November, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 11.7 °C against a yearly mean of 14.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to May.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 508 mm a year, wettest August at 66 mm, driest February at 20 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

508 mm a year at the habitat, 374 mm of it May to November. Wettest month August at 66 mm, driest February at 20 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 425 mm to 704 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

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

Light Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 49 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 49 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 12, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor 1.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 1.2 °C, the absolute minimum -2.1 °C, 37 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 5.6 °C in July (across the envelope cells 4.2 °C to 8.1 °C), warmest day 27.2 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 52 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 13 °C in Jul to 27 °C in Feb; mean night from 6 °C in Jul to 15 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 508 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 911 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -2.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 41.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost41.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-2.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100mm rainDLI 13–49RH 52–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 911 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 24–2927 / 24–2924 / 22–2520 / 19–2116 / 15–1713 / 12–1413 / 11–1414 / 13–1516 / 15–1719 / 17–2022 / 20–2425 / 22–26
Night °C15 / 13–1615 / 14–1613 / 12–1511 / 10–138 / 7–116 / 5–96 / 4–86 / 5–87 / 6–109 / 8–1111 / 10–1313 / 12–15
Rain mm22 / 16–3620 / 16–3525 / 20–3933 / 26–4749 / 38–7164 / 48–9963 / 48–9866 / 50–9255 / 44–7243 / 34–5934 / 28–5634 / 28–50
DLI49 / 45–5044 / 41–4634 / 31–3724 / 22–2716 / 14–1813 / 12–1514 / 13–1619 / 18–2127 / 25–3036 / 34–3944 / 41–4647 / 44–49
RH %52 / 49–5752 / 49–5754 / 52–5856 / 54–5860 / 58–6262 / 60–6562 / 60–6560 / 58–6259 / 57–6056 / 54–5854 / 52–5853 / 51–57

Each figure is the median across the 911 grid cells holding the 1806 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2490:6378 (-34.525, 138.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -2.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 911 distinct grid cells holding the 1806 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2490:6378 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -34.50_138.750, lapse-corrected +92 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 246 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNew South Wales, South Australia, Victoria· introduced: Kenya, Tanzania, Western Australia
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-35.058, 138.927 · in the densest population, 998 records (55% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1823 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1665 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 41 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 17 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1823 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Eucalyptus leucoxylonEucalyptus leucoxylonEucalyptus leucoxylonEucalyptus leucoxylonEucalyptus leucoxylonEucalyptus leucoxylonEucalyptus leucoxylonEucalyptus leucoxylon

Photographs: (c) ttsquid, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Nina Kerr, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Russell Best, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Eucalyptus leucoxylon, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Composition of Australian Honey Extractives. 1. Norisoprenoids, Monoterpenes, and Other Natural Volatiles from Blue Gum (Eucalyptusleucoxylon)and Yellow Box (Eucalyptus melliodora)Honeys
Bruce D’Arcy, Gavin B. Rintoul, Catherine Y. Rowland, Adrian J. Blackman (1997) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles usingEucalyptus leucoxylonleaves extract and evaluating the antioxidant activities of extract
Mehdi Rahimi‐Nasrabadi, Seied Mahdi Pourmortazavi, Seyed Ataollah Sadat Shandiz, Farhad Ahmadi (2014) · Natural Product Research
Phenological studies in Australia: potential application in historical and future climate analysis
Marie R. Keatley, Tim D. Fletcher, Irene L. Hudson, Peter K. Ades (2002) · International Journal of Climatology
Long-term flowering synchrony of box-ironbark eucalypts
Marie R. Keatley, Irene L. Hudson, Tim D. Fletcher (2004) · Australian Journal of Botany
Effects of Non-host Plants on Growth of Mycorrhizal Fungi of Radiata Pine
C. Theodorou, G. D. Bowen (1971) · Australian Forestry
Gynodioecy and Male Sterility in Eucalyptus leucoxylon F. Muell. (Myrtaceae)
M. F. Ellis, M. Sedgley (1993) · International Journal of Plant Sciences
Seasonal Variation in Volatile Oil of Eucalyptus Species in Iran
Fatemeh Sefidkon, Atefeh Bahmanzadegan, M H Assareh, Zahra Abravesh (2009) · Journal of Herbs Spices & Medicinal Plants
Habitat preferences of the noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala) – a propensity for prime real estate?
Joanne M. Oldland, Rick S. Taylor, Michael F. Clarke (2009) · Austral Ecology

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Eucalyptus 12 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 32 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.