Tree to 20 m, often less. Dark grey, flaky, brittle bark, sometimes similar to bloodwoods or stringybarks. Leaves opposite whitish blue grey to bright green, sessile (attached to branch without petioles). New growth with scattered long reddish hairs and shorter white hairs. Profuse white flowers in bundles at the ends of twigs in summer. Widely scattered and locally abundant. A beautiful tree in dry eucalypt forest, with twisted and gnarled branches. An important honey source. Food for Queensland Blossom Bat Syconycteris australis and local butterflies. Subvelutina means more or less hairy.
This specimen is less than a year old, having sprouted on the western bank of Fish Creek just above the junction of Fish and Enoggera Creek.
Trunk and Lignocormic Growth
Angophora is a genus of ten species of trees or large shrubs in the myrtle family Myrtaceae, native to eastern Australia. It is closely related to Corymbia and Eucalyptus, and all three are often referred to as eucalypts. The differences are that Angophora have opposite leaves rather than alternate, and lack a bud cap or operculum. Angophora also has fruit with sharp ribs, while the fruit of Eucalyptus is usually smooth.
This Angophora has been strangled by a fig. Photo: Robert Whyte
Foliage and Flowers
The species vary in appearance from a bushy form, such as the Dwarf Apple Angiophora hispida, to tall trees growing to a height of 30 m. The bark is rough and scaly. The lanceolate leaves are darkgreen. The creamy white flowers grow in large inflorescences.
Photo: Robert Whyte
Flowers
The name comes from the Greek angeion a vessel or goblet, and phoreo I bear or carry, in reference to the fruit which resembles the gumnut but lacks the operculum.
Photo: Robert Whyte
Flower Buds
This tree readily germinates in mulched areas nearby mature specimens, as is the case in Walton Bridge Reserve, The Gap where many have sprung up along Fish Creek.
