The natural distribution of Eucalyptus species in Tasmania K.J. Williams and B.M. Potts Cooperative Research Centre for Temperate Hardwood Forestry, Department of Plant Science, University of Tasmania, GPO Box 252–55, Hobart 7001 email:
[email protected]./
[email protected] Abstract dispersed (E. cordata) or disjunct (E. archeri) occurrences. Most species that are rare in A summary is provided of the natural geographic Tasmania are endemics, with the exception of distributions of the 29 Tasmanian Eucalyptus E. perriniana and E. aff. radiata, although species. The work is based on over 60 000 the taxonomic status of the latter requires observations from numerous data sources. A map investigation. Unresolved issues relating to the on a 10 km x 10 km grid-cell scale is presented for natural distribution and taxonomic affinities of each species and is accompanied by graphs of the the Tasmanian eucalypt species are summarised. altitudinal range and flowering times, as well as descriptive notes on distribution and ecology, supplemented with a list of key references. The Introduction geographic pattern of species richness is examined at generic, subgeneric and series levels. Total In Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands, species richness is greater in the drier, eastern 29 native eucalypt species (one of which has regions compared to the wet, western regions of two subspecies) are recognised by Buchanan Tasmania, with highest concentrations of species (1995), from two informal subgenera, occurring mainly in the central east coast and Monocalyptus and Symphyomyrtus (Pryor and south-eastern regions. Monocalyptus species Johnson 1971).