A classification of the eucalypts

Abstract

ABSTRACT Pryor, L.D., and Johnson, L.A.S. (Dept. Bot., Aust. Nat. Univ., Canberra, and Roy. Bot. Gardens and Nat. Herb., Sydney). A CLASSIFICATION OF THE EUCALYPTS (Dept. Bot. Puhl.), 102 pp., 1971.-­A new classification is presented of all taxa of EuaaZyptus (and Angophora) (Myrtaceae­Leptospermoideae), on the basis of studies from many disciplines and extensive field experience. This is not in the traditional revisionary form and formal nomenclatural innovations at the species and subspecies level will follow later. Infrageneric classification into subgenera, sections, series, and subseries follows a rationalised plan explicitly divorced from the traditional system embodied in the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. This is accompanied by an equivalent and flexible system using 1- to 6-letter coded designations for taxa of the various ranks, which embodies the whole classificatory structure. There is a comprehensive index to specific and infraspecific names. Discussion covers the kinds of evidence used, the inflorescence, the operculum, the ovule, and the seed, as well as genetic behaviour, the range of variation-patterns found, and the case for recognition of segregate genera. Recognition of two (only) such genera (EuaaZyptus s. str. and Symphyomyrtus) as proposed by some recent authors is considered oversimplified and contrary to the evidence. Although division into a number of genera may perhaps be desirable in the future, it seems best at present to consider all the eucalypts as constituting a single genus with eight subgenera. Angophora would logically be included as one of these but, to avoid possible future reversals, its generic status ·is not· formally reduced at this· stage. Show more