About

Eucalyptus wandoo, commonly known as wandoo, dooto, warrnt or wornt and sometimes as white gum, is a small to medium-sized tree that is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It has smooth bark, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of nine to seventeen, white flowers and conical to cylindrical fruit. It is one of a number of similar Eucalyptus species known as wandoo.

E. wandoo was first described in 1934 by the Australian botanist William Faris Blakely in his book A Key to the Eucalypts using material collected by the English collector Augustus Frederick Oldfield from a sand plain along the Kalgan River. As of January 2023, Plants of the World Online lists Eucalyptus redunca var. elata as a taxonomic synonym of E. wandoo.

Where it grows

Wandoo occurs in the south west of Western Australia from Morawa in the north extending south through the Darling Range down to around the Stirling Range to the south coast near the Pallinup River. There is an outlying population found to the east of Narembeen at Twine Reserve. It grows in sandy loams, clay loams or dark brown loamy soils and stony soils, that can contain laterite, granite or gravel as part of an undulating landscape. It is found along the base of the Darling Scarp and spreads south and east out into the Wheatbelt and as far as the Great Southern. It is native to the following IBRA bioregions; Geraldton Sandplains and Avon Wheatbelt in the north through the Swan Coastal Plain and Jarrah Forest to the Esperance Plains and Mallee in the south.

Uses

The indigenous Noongar peoples used wandoo as a medicinal plant with antibacterial properties and the leaves are steamed or used to make poultices to relieve congestion. The dried gum of the plant was ground up and utilised as an ointment.

Other Eucalyptus plants

White eucalyptus · New England Stringybark · River redgum · Coowarra Box · Coolabah · Narrowleaf red ironbark · White gum · Indonesian gum · River peppermint gum · Tasmanian bluegum · Cider gum · Araluen Gum