Corymbia 'Summer Beauty'

Connor is responsible for today''s write-up:

Thanks to kjbeath@Flickr (and Ken''s photo site) for this wonderful shot (original via UBCBG Botany Photo of the Day pool).

Corymbia ''Summer Beauty'' is a hybrid between Corymbia ficifolia, usually known as the red-flower gum and, Corymbia ptychocarpa, usually known as the swamp bloodwood. These two species are native to northwestern Australia.

As kjbeath noted, previous to 1995 these two (along with 113 other species) were classified as belonging to Eucalyptus. This genus of the eucalypt group in the Myrtaceae used to be divided into seven subgenera (from Microsatellites retain phylogenetic signals across genera in eucalypts (Myrtaceae) - PDF). Following a taxonomic revision based on morphology characters two of these subgenera Corymbia (the bloodwoods), and, Blakearia (the ghost gums) were included in the new genus Corymbia. What''s a Corymbia from the Australian Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research provides a clarifying summary.

Since this revision, it has been suggested that another closely related eucalypt genus, Angophora, should be included in Corymbia. As per chloroplast DNA, Corymbia is paraphyletic with respect to Angophora. In the first article cited, Ochieng et al. have used more genetic sequence data and observed that Corymbia indeed forms its own clade.

Here is an interesting article: Radiation of the Australian flora: what can comparisons of molecular phylogenies across multiple taxa tell us about the evolution of diversity in present-day communities? (PDF) outlining plant speciation in Australia.

For those inclined towards other aspects of botany, Susan K. Martin provides an account of the ''gums'' in literature in The Wood from the Trees: Taxonomy and the Eucalypt as the New National Hero in Recent Australian Writing (PDF). Posted by: Daniel Mosquin    Source