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species  More about eucalypts  Inflorescences, buds and flowers
Looking beyond the leaves, the researcher then seeks the floral
structures. These traditionally hold the defining aspects of
species. There are numerous characters associated with them.
Basically there are two contrasting forms of floral
architecture, the individual flower buds or flowers, and then
their arrangement on the branchlets. In most species of
eucalypts, the buds occur in clusters on single stalks in the
axils of the leaves. The flowers are mostly small and whitish
and are not conspicuous in the crown.  A very few species have
the inflorescences in complex clusters in the axils, e.g. E.
michaeliana or on elongated axillary shoots as in E.
tessellaris. Four species from south-eastern Australia, E.
fastigata, E. pachycalyx, E. regnans and E. squamosa, form their
buds consistently in twin clusters in each axil of the leaf. In
contrast, several large groups, the bloodwoods, some of