Mallee is the growth
habitHabit, when used in the context of biology, refers to the instinctive actions of animals and the natural tendencies of plants.In zoology, this term most often refers to specific behavioral characteristics, even when directly related to physiology...
of certain
eucalyptEucalypts are woody plants belonging to three closely related genera:Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora.In 1995 new evidence, largely genetic, indicated that some prominent Eucalyptus species were actually more closely related to Angophora than to the other eucalypts; they were split off into the...
species that grow with multiple stems springing from an underground
lignotuberA lignotuber is a starchy swelling of the root crown possessed by some plants as a protection against destruction of the plant stem by fire. The crown contains buds from which new stems may sprout, and a sufficient store of nutrients to support a period of growth in the absence of...
, usually to a height of no more than ten metres. It is most common in plants of the
genusIn biology, a genus is a taxonomic unit used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The term comes from Latin genus "descent, family, type, gender" , cognate with – genos, "race, stock, kin" ..In addition, genus is a taxonomic rank in the hierarchy In biology, a genus (plural:...
EucalyptusEucalyptus is a diverse genus of flowering trees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Members of the genus dominate the tree flora of Australia. There are more than 700 species of Eucalyptus, mostly native to Australia, and a very small number are found in adjacent parts of New Guinea and Indonesia...
, many of which naturally grow in a mallee habit, and some of which grow as single-stemmed
treeA tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
s initially but recover in mallee form if burnt to the ground by
bushfireA bushfire is a fire that occurs in the bush . In south east Australia, bushfires tend to be most common and most severe during summer and autumn, in drought years, and particularly severe in El Niño years...
. It also occurs in the closely related genera
CorymbiaCorymbia 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, spotted gums amongst others. The bloodwoods had been recognised as a distinct group within the large and diverse Eucalyptus genus since 1867...
and
AngophoraAngophora is a genus of ten species of trees or large shrubs in the myrtle family , 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...
.
Mallee is the growth
habitHabit, when used in the context of biology, refers to the instinctive actions of animals and the natural tendencies of plants.In zoology, this term most often refers to specific behavioral characteristics, even when directly related to physiology...
of certain
eucalyptEucalypts are woody plants belonging to three closely related genera:Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora.In 1995 new evidence, largely genetic, indicated that some prominent Eucalyptus species were actually more closely related to Angophora than to the other eucalypts; they were split off into the...
species that grow with multiple stems springing from an underground
lignotuberA lignotuber is a starchy swelling of the root crown possessed by some plants as a protection against destruction of the plant stem by fire. The crown contains buds from which new stems may sprout, and a sufficient store of nutrients to support a period of growth in the absence of...
, usually to a height of no more than ten metres. It is most common in plants of the
genusIn biology, a genus is a taxonomic unit used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The term comes from Latin genus "descent, family, type, gender" , cognate with – genos, "race, stock, kin" ..In addition, genus is a taxonomic rank in the hierarchy In biology, a genus (plural:...
EucalyptusEucalyptus is a diverse genus of flowering trees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Members of the genus dominate the tree flora of Australia. There are more than 700 species of Eucalyptus, mostly native to Australia, and a very small number are found in adjacent parts of New Guinea and Indonesia...
, many of which naturally grow in a mallee habit, and some of which grow as single-stemmed
treeA tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
s initially but recover in mallee form if burnt to the ground by
bushfireA bushfire is a fire that occurs in the bush . In south east Australia, bushfires tend to be most common and most severe during summer and autumn, in drought years, and particularly severe in El Niño years...
. It also occurs in the closely related genera
CorymbiaCorymbia 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, spotted gums amongst others. The bloodwoods had been recognised as a distinct group within the large and diverse Eucalyptus genus since 1867...
and
AngophoraAngophora is a genus of ten species of trees or large shrubs in the myrtle family , 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...
. The word
mallee may also be used as a
nounIn linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition....
in reference to species or individual plants with a mallee habit.
Mallees are the dominant vegetation throughout semi-arid areas of
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
with reliable winter rainfall. Within this area, they form extensive woodlands and shrublands covering over 250,000 square kilometres. Thus
mallee woodlands and shrublandsMallee Woodlands and Shrublands is a Major Vegetation Group which occurs in semi-arid areas of southern Australia. The vegetation is dominated by mallee eucalypts which are rarely over 6 metres high...
are considered one of Australia's Major Vegetation Groups.
Widespread mallee species include:
- E. dumosa
Eucalyptus dumosa, White Mallee is a mallee of the relatively dry country of South Australia from the northern Flinders Ranges and Murray Mallee eastwards to central western New South Wales and north eastern Victoria....
(White Mallee)
- E. socialis (Red Mallee)
- E. gracilis (Yorrell)
- E. oleosa
Eucalyptus oleosa, red mallee, is a native tree of Australia. The leaves were once harvested for the production of cineole based eucalyptus oil. These days Eucalyptus cneorifolia is used because of a higher oil content in new growth....
(Red Mallee)
- E. incrassata (Ridge-fruited Mallee)
- E. diversifolia (Soap Mallee)
The
MalleefowlThe Malleefowl is a stocky ground-dwelling Australian bird about the size of a domestic chicken...
is a
birdBirds are winged, bipedal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay eggs. There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Birds range in size from the Bee Hummingbird to the ...
characteristic of this habitat.
An example of a mallee in a high rainfall area is the rare Yellow Top Mallee Ash.