Commonly known as mallee box, Eucalyptus cuprea is the only eucalypt ranked as Critically Endangered in Western Australia. It is four to six metres tall, with flaky dark grey bark on the lower half of the trunk and smooth coppery or grey bark above. This species is distinguished by glossy dark green adult leaves, sparse oil glands and small white flowers that are arranged in inflorescence at the end of branchlets.
Mallee box is only known from four populations over a range of approximately 80 km. The species is distributions throughout the Northampton area, growing in scattered populations on rises in brown sandy loam with sandstone or granite and more rarely in red-brown clayey loam with laterite.
The main threat and cause of rarity of mallee box is land clearing, other threats include road and crop maintenance, insect damage, inappropriate fire regimes, grazing of seedlings and weed encroachment.
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This information has been sourced from the Department of Parks and Wildlife.
