Lemonscented gum

Corymbia citriodora, the lemon-scented gum, is a tall evergreen tree in the Myrtaceae endemic to north-eastern Australia, particularly the dry sclerophyll forests and woodlands of Queensland. Plants typically reach 25 to 40 metres in height, occasionally exceeding 50 metres, with a straight, slender, columnar trunk clothed in smooth, powdery, white to pinkish bark that sheds annually in thin curling flakes. The adult leaves are alternate, lanceolate, 10 to 23 centimetres long and 0.5 to 2.5 centimetres wide, dull green and densely packed with translucent oil glands that emit a strong lemon scent when crushed, dominated by the monoterpene citronellal. Inflorescences are terminal compound corymbs of three-flowered umbels bearing white flowers in winter; the bud has a fused operculum that sheds at anthesis to release a brush of cream stamens. The fruit is a thin-walled, urceolate woody capsule about 1 centimetre long.