1.
Eucalyptus
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Eucalyptus /ˌjuːkəˈlɪptəs/ LHeritier 1789 is a diverse genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Members of the genus dominate the flora of Australia. There are more than 700 species of eucalyptus and most are native to Australia, one species, Eucalyptus deglupta, ranges as far north as the Philippines. Of the 15 species found outside Australia, just nine are exclusively non-Australian, species of eucalyptus are cultivated widely in the tropical and temperate world, including the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East, China, and the Indian subcontinent. However, the range over which many eucalypts can be planted in the zone is constrained by their limited cold tolerance. Australia is covered by 92,000,000 hectares of eucalypt forest, Eucalyptus is one of three similar genera that are commonly referred to as eucalypts, the others being Corymbia and Angophora. Many species, though by no means all, are known as gum trees because they exude copious kino from any break in the bark. The generic name is derived from the Greek words ευ well and καλύπτω to cover, Eucalyptus oil finds many uses like in aromatherapy, as a cure for joint pains. Eucalyptus trees show allelopathic effects, they release compounds which inhibit other plant species from growing nearby, on warm days, eucalyptus forests are sometimes shrouded in a smog-like mist of vaporised volatile organic compounds, the Australian Blue Mountains take their name from the haze. A mature eucalyptus may take the form of a low shrub or a large tree. The species can be divided into three main habits and four size categories, as a generalisation forest trees are single-stemmed and have a crown forming a minor proportion of the whole tree height. Woodland trees are single-stemmed, although they may branch at a distance above ground level. Many mallee trees may be so low-growing as to be considered a shrub, two other tree forms are notable in Western Australia and described using the native names mallet and marlock. The mallet is a small to medium-sized tree that does not produce lignotubers and has a long trunk. This is the habit of mature healthy specimens of Eucalyptus occidentalis, E. astringens, E. spathulata, E. gardneri, E. dielsii, E. forrestiana, E. salubris, E. clivicola. The smooth bark of mallets often has a satiny sheen and may be white, cream, grey, green, or copper. The term marlock has been used, in Forest Trees of Australia, it is defined as a small tree without lignotubers. They usually grow in more or less pure stands, clearly recognisable examples are stands of E. platypus, E. vesiculosa, and the unrelated E. stoatei
2.
Corymbia
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Corymbia is a genus of about 113 species of tree that were classified as Eucalyptus species until the mid-1990s. It includes the bloodwoods, ghost gums and spotted gums, the bloodwoods had been recognised as a distinct group within the large and diverse Eucalyptus genus since 1867. All three genera - Angophora, Corymbia and Eucalyptus - are closely related, often difficult to tell apart, groups of naturalists and conservationists do not recognise the Corymbia genus and still categorise its species within Eucalyptus. Botanists Ken Hill and Lawrie Johnson were the first to define the genus Corymbia in 1995, identifying the bloodwoods, ghost gums, since then, there have been ongoing investigations into the relationships between the genera. The small genera Eucalyptopsis, Stockwellia and Allosyncarpia formed a clade which arose earlier still, in 2009, Parra-O and colleagues added more taxa and published a combined analysis of nuclear rDNA and morphological characters published to clarify relationships within the genus. This confirmed two main clades, which they defined as the subgenera Corymbia and Blakella, corymbias are readily distinguished as gum trees that form corymb inflorescences. A corymb has the appearance of an umbel, however it has irregularly lengthened pedicels that help form a flat-topped inflorescence. The Angophora genus is difficult to distinguish from the Eucalyptus genus. The main distinguishing feature is that Angophoras have opposite leaf attachments at maturity, however juvenile leaves of Eucalyptus are usually opposite and many species have opposite adult leaves
3.
Angophora
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Angophora is a genus of flowering plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, described as a genus in 1797. It is endemic to Australia, where species are distributed in Queensland, New South Wales, the centre of diversity is along the northern and central coast of New South Wales. Angophora is closely related to Corymbia and Eucalyptus, and all three genera are often referred to as eucalypts, collectively the eucalypts, or gum trees, dominate many Australian ecosystems. Angophora can be distinguished from other eucalypts by its oppositely arranged leaves and flowers which lack opercula, taxonomists have long recognised the relationships between the eucalypt taxa, but have not agreed upon a classification scheme. Some have proposed merging Angophora and Corymbia into genus Eucalyptus as subgenera, some authors maintain Angophora as a genus, while others continue to debate the issue. Among the eucalypts, Angophora species were nicknamed apples by European settlers, many are still known commonly as apples today. The opposite leaves are hairy and glandular when new, and mostly hairless when mature, the inflorescence is an arrangement of several clusters of 3 to 7 flowers each. The flower has 4 or 5 small, green sepals, overlapping white petals, the fruit is a papery or slightly woody capsule, usually with thick ribs and a coat of hairs. The following are accepted species, Angophora bakeri, a tree up to 10 metres tall. A tree up to 30 meters tall with smooth, scaly bark, - NSW Angophora × clelandii - hybrid A. bakeri × A. hispida - NSW Angophora crassifolia, a tree up to 15 meters tall endemic to New South Wales. - NSW Angophora × dichromophloia - hybrid, A. costata × A. hispida - NSW Angophora euryphylla, - NSW Angophora exul, a threatened species known only from a small area at Gibraltar Rock, New South Wales. A tree up to 8 meters tall with compound, terminal inflorescences, a common tree up to 30 metres tall - NSW, Qld, and Vic Angophora hispida. A tree or mallee up to 7 meters tall, - NSW Angophora inopina, a vulnerable species. A tree up to 8 metres tall, - NSW Angophora leiocarpa, a tree up to 25 meters tall. A multi-stemmed tree up to 15 metres tall, - NSW, Qld Angophora paludosa, a tree up to 15 metres tall. - NSW Angophora robur, a vulnerable species, a tree up to 10 metres tall. A tree up to 20 metres tall, - NSW, Qld Angophora woodsiana, a tree up to 20 metres tall. Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research, Australian National Herbarium
4.
Arillastrum
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Arillastrum is a monotypic genus of trees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, containing the single species Arillastrum gummiferum. It is endemic to southern New Caledonia and it is related to Eucalyptus, more precisely to Angophora and Corymbia. It is a tree up to 35 meters tall with a trunk over a meter wide and it might flower only every seven years. The flowers each have four clusters of stamens and staminodes and this species grows on ultramafic rock substrates. It grows in stands with other individuals of its species, the species has been called one of New Caledonias most economically and ecologically significant trees. It has been exploited for its strong, dark red, resinous wood, which is useful for the construction of buildings, bridges, boats. Its populations have significantly reduced by logging
5.
Arnhem Land
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Arnhem Land is one of the five regions of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the corner of the territory and is around 500 km from the territory capital Darwin. The region has an area of 97,000 km2, which covers the area of Kakadu National Park. The area covers about 34,000 km2 and has an population of 16,000, of whom 12,000 are Yolngu. The region’s service hub is Nhulunbuy,600 km east of Darwin, other major population centres are Yirrkala, Gunbalanya, Ramingining, and Maningrida. A substantial proportion of the population, which is mostly Aboriginal and this outstation movement started in the early 1980s. Many Aboriginal groups moved to very small settlements on their traditional lands. These population groups have very little western influence culturally speaking, many of the regions leaders have called and continue to call for a treaty that would allow the Yolngu to operate under their own traditional laws. In 2013-14, the region contributed around $1.3 billion or 7% to the Northern Territory’s gross state product. Arnhem Land has been occupied by people for tens of thousands of years and is the location of the oldest-known stone axe. The Gove Peninsula was heavily involved in the defence of Australia during World War II, at least since the 18th century Muslim traders from Makassar visited Arnhem Land each year to trade, harvest, and process sea cucumbers or trepang. This sea slug is highly prized in Chinese cuisine, for folk medicine and this Macassan contact with Australia is the first recorded example of interaction between the inhabitants of the Australian continent and their Asian neighbours. This contact had an effect on local indigenous Australians. The Makassans exchanged goods such as cloth, tobacco, knives, rice, Makassar pidgin became a lingua franca along the north coast among several indigenous Australian groups who were brought into greater contact with each other by the seafaring Makassan culture. These traders from the southwest corner of Sulawesi also introduced the word balanda for white people, in Arnhem Land, the word is still widely used today to refer to white Australians. The Dutch started settling in Sulawesi Island in the early 17th century, archeological remains of Makassar contact, including trepang processing plants from the 18th and 19th centuries, are still found at Australian locations such as Port Essington and Groote Eylandt. The Makassans also planted tamarind trees, after processing, the sea slugs were traded by the Makassans to Southern China. In 2014, an 18th-century Chinese coin was found in the area of Wessel Islands off the coast on a beach on Elcho Island during a historical expedition
6.
New Guinea
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New Guinea is a large Island in the South West Pacific region. It is the worlds second-largest island, after Greenland, covering an area of 785,753 km2. The island is divided between two countries, Papua New Guinea to the east, and Indonesia to the west, the island has been known by various names. The name Papua was used to refer to parts of the island before contact with the West and its etymology is unclear, one theory states that it is from Tidore, the language used by the Sultanate of Tidore, which controlled parts of the islands coastal region. The name came from papo and ua, which means not united or, ploeg reports that the word papua is often said to derive from the Malay word papua or pua-pua, meaning frizzly-haired, referring to the highly curly hair of the inhabitants of these areas. When the Portuguese and Spanish explorers arrived in the island via the Spice Islands, when the Dutch colonized it as part of Netherlands East Indies, they called it Nieuw Guinea. The name Irian was used in the Indonesian language to refer the island and Indonesian province, the name was promoted in 1945 by Marcus Kaisiepo, brother of the future governor Frans Kaisiepo. It is taken from the Biak language of Biak Island, and means to rise and this name of Irian is the name used in the Biak language and other languages such as Serui, Merauke and Waropen. The name was used until 2001, when the name Papua was again used for the island, the name Irian, which was originally favored by natives, is now considered to be a name imposed by the authority of Jakarta. New Guinea is an island to the north of Australia, and it is isolated by the Arafura Sea to the west and the Torres Strait and Coral Sea to the east. A spine of east–west mountains, the New Guinea Highlands, dominates the geography of New Guinea, stretching over 1,600 km from the head to the tail of the island. The western half of the island of New Guinea contains the highest mountains in Oceania, rising up to 4,884 m high, the tree line is around 4,000 m elevation and the tallest peaks contain permanent equatorial glaciers—which have been retreating since at least 1936. Various other smaller mountain ranges occur both north and west of the central ranges, except in high elevations, most areas possess a warm humid climate throughout the year, with some seasonal variation associated with the northeast monsoon season. At 4,884 metres, Puncak Jaya makes New Guinea the worlds fourth highest landmass, Puncak Mandala, located in Papua, is the second highest peak on the island at 4,760 metres. Puncak Trikora, also in Papua, is 4,750 metres, mount Wilhelm is the highest peak on the PNG side of the border at 4,509 metres. Its granite peak is the highest point of the Bismarck Range, mount Giluwe 4,368 metres is the second highest summit in PNG. It is also the highest volcanic peak in Oceania, another major habitat feature is the vast southern and northern lowlands. Stretching for hundreds of kilometres, these include lowland rainforests, extensive wetlands, savanna grasslands, the southern lowlands are the site of Lorentz National Park, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site
