Eucalyptus ovata
{{Speciesbox
|name = Swamp gum
|image = Eucalyptus ovata.jpg
|image_caption = Eucalyptus ovata in Maranoa Gardens
|status = VU
|status_system = IUCN3.1
|status_ref = 
|genus = Eucalyptus
|species = ovata
|authority = Labill. |synonyms_ref =
|synonyms = Eucalyptus muelleri Naudin nom. illeg. |range_map =E. ovata.JPG
|range_map_caption =E. ovata, field distribution
|}}Eucalyptus ovata, commonly known as swamp gum or black gum, is a small to medium-sized tree species that is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It has mostly smooth bark, glossy green, lance-shaped to egg-shaped adult leaves, green flower buds in groups of seven, white flowers and conical to bell-shaped fruit. DescriptionEucalyptus ovata is a tree that typically grows to a height of  and forms a lignotuber, but with a variable habit, from a straggly sapling in east Gippsland to stout-boled elsewhere. It has smooth, grey, whitish or pinkish-grey new bark, sometimes with loose rough bark near the base of larger trees. Young plants and coppice regrowth have elliptical to egg-shaped leaves that are  long and  wide. Adult leaves are the same shade of glossy green on both sides, lance-shaped to egg-shaped,  long and  wide, tapering to a petiole  long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils on an unbranched peduncle,  long, the individual buds on pedicels  long. Mature buds are diamond-shaped,  long and  wide with a conical operculum. Flowering mainly occurs from June to November and the flowers are white. The fruit is a woody, conical to slightly bell-shaped capsule  long and  wide with the valves near rim level.Brooker & Kleinig, Field Guide to Eucalypts, Vol 2 South Western and Southern Australia, Bloomings Books, Melbourne, 2001, 

Taxonomy and namingEucalyptus ovata was first formally described in 1806 by Jacques Labillardière in Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen. The specific epithet (ovata) is from the Latin ovatus, referring to the leaf shape. In 1916, Joseph Maiden described two varieties of E. ovata in his book, A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus, and the names have been accepted by the Australian Plant Census:
 Eucalyptus ovata var. grandiflora Maiden;
 Eucalyptus ovata Labill. var. ovata''. Distribution and habitat
Swamp gum is widespread in south-eastern Australia and is found from the western end of Kangaroo Island and the southern Mount Lofty ranges in the south-east of South Australia, to Tasmania, the southern half of Victoria and to south-eastern New South Wales as far north as Oberon and Hill Top. It grows in grassy woodland in low, temporarily or permanently damp sites. References

ovata
Trees of Australia
Myrtales of Australia
Flora of Victoria (state)
Flora of New South Wales
Flora of South Australia
Flora of Tasmania
Taxa named by Jacques Labillardière
Plants described in 1806