Corymbia calophylla

Corymbia calophylla is a large and common tree in the southwest of Australia. Originally described as a species of Eucalyptus, it was separated to genus that allied the bloodwoods and their relations. Corymbia calophylla is commonly known as marri, in preference to the ambiguous red gum, a name derived from the Noongar language of Southwest Australia region. The trunk responds to damage by insects by exuding a red, blood-like substance, a type of kino, that is able to be collected for a variety of uses. Able to establish itself as a very large tree, the fast growing species often colonises and out-competes other woody species in disturbed areas. The large green leaves of marri will create well shaded areas that impedes other plants growth and creates comfortable refuge or habitat for a large number of animals, the complex fissures and bark of the trunk and branches is also utilised by a diverse array of organisms. . A large tree, or mallee in poor soil, which typically grows to a height of 40 metres (131 ft), but can reach 60 metres (197 ft). The trunk of the tree may become up to two metres wide, the branches becoming large, thick and rambling. It has rough tessellated grey-brown to red-brown bark that extends over the length of the trunk and branches. Adult leaves are disjunct, glossy, green, thick and concolorous with a broad lanceolate to ovate shape that is basally tapered or basally rounded. The leaf blade is 9 to 14 centimetres (4 to 6 in) long and 25 to 40 millimetres (0.98 to 1.57 in) wide. The leaf petioles are narrowly flattened or channelled and 15 to 20 mm (0.59 to 0.79 in) long. It blooms between December and May, producing white to pink flowers. The terminal compound conflorescence composed of three to seven flowered regular umbellasters on terete or angular peduncles. Buds form that are clavate and 7 to 14 mm (0.28 to 0.55 in) in length and with a diameter of 7 to 10 mm (0.28 to 0.39 in) with a calyptrate calyx. The fruits or gumnuts form later and can remain on the tree for a year or more. They are ovoid to urceolate in shape, pedicellate, and 30 to 50 mm (1.2 to 2.0 in) long with a 25 to 40 mm (1.0 to 1.6 in) diameter. The large nuts produced carry large seeds which are an important food source for native bird species such as cockatoos. The tree propagates readily from seeds.It is distinctive among bloodwoods for its very large buds and fruit, colloquially known as honky (or honkey) nuts, in Western Australia. The first accepted description of the species was published by John Lindley in Edwards Botanical Register (1841), from specimens in Robert Brown's collection near King George Sound in 1801.The species name was published in 1831 by Brown, but without an adequate description it was deemed to be nomen nudum. Brown used a specimen grown at Kew to classify its family as Myrtaceae, and gave the specific epithet calophylla for what he regarded as the most beautiful leaves of a eucalypt, and leaf venation reminiscent of Calophyllum, a tropical genus. The botanist Ferdinand Mueller placed the species with a series of 'bloodwoods' in 1884, based on characteristics of the bark. The 1920 work by J. H. Maiden, Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus, supported this arrangement. The current placement with the genus Corymbia resulted from a revision by K. D. Hill and L. A. S. Johnson in 1995. In 2009, Carlos Parra-O and colleagues published a combined analysis of nuclear rDNA (ETS + ITS) and morphological characters published to clarify relationships within the genus Corymbia. C. calophylla was found to form a natural group with two other Western Australian species C. ficifolia and C. haematoxylon. They classified the group as section Calophyllae within the subgenus Corymbia. It is related and somewhat similar to Corymbia ficifolia, a red flowered species endemic to the same region.C. calophylla differs in being larger (to about 50 metres (160 ft) high in the wild), having much larger buds and fruit, and flowers that are usually white—occasionally pink—instead of red. However, in some areas hybridisation makes identification difficult. Common names include marri and Port Gregory gum, and a long-standing usage has been red gum due to the red sap effusions often found on trunks. Red gum was recorded as a name in use by the Swan River colonists in 1835.Other species of Corymbia (then Eucalyptus) were referred to as 'red gum', so to avoid ambiguity the Forestry Department of the Western Australian government nominated the extant name marri in the 1920s. Corymbia calophylla is still commonly known as a 'eucalypt', despite the transfer to the new genus. The Noongar peoples know the tree as gardan, kurrden, mahree, marri, nandap or ngora.Second-hand reports of Indigenous names for 'red gum' were reported by correspondents in The West Australian in 1929, the name kardun attributed to the Pinjarrah people and marri from the Blackwood region; marri boona was said to be a reference to the wood.