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This is near Alice Springs NT, Australia, about -24°S latitude, 550m. Area is arid but it's in a maintained park.

I don't know the exact size, but the photo is hand-held from the ground and clearly the tree is quite tall.

I only have this one photo to work with (it's not mine). I've added some cropped sections of the same original image below for easier viewing.

It reminded me of the tree I saw in the linked video below, which is likely a Eucalyptus considering the koala context.

I don't need an exact species, just confirmation of my genus hunch.

Oh! No koalas were seen in the tree eating leaves at the time, which would have made a "differential diagnosis" easer.

eucalyptus tree?

eucalyptus tree?

eucalyptus tree?

From Koala Bears and Eucalyptus - Periodic Table of Videos at about 02:10 (Sir Poliakoff reminds us a few times in the video (himself as well) that koalas are not "bears"!)

eucalyptus tree?

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  • $\begingroup$ Yes it is a Eucalyptus tree.That's known as a Ghost Gum. (All Eucalyptus' are referred to as Gum Trees) . $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 12, 2018 at 22:09
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks! I can certainly see how it got that name. I also see that Ghost Gum refers to a group of closely related species. Do you also think that this is probably Corymbia aparrerinja? $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Nov 12, 2018 at 22:26

2 Answers 2

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This tree is ilwempe (Corymbia aparrerinja) or Ghost Gum. It is endemic to Central Australia where you saw it, and depicted in the paintings of local aboriginal people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corymbia_aparrerinja

Before the 1990's all trees of this form were in the genus Eucalyptus (and usually called gum trees), since then many have been put into the genuses Corymbia and Angophora

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  • $\begingroup$ Wow, thank you for the new, updated information! $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Jul 3, 2020 at 14:37
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This is Eucalyptus apodophylla, the so called whitebark.

Further information can be found here

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    $\begingroup$ I'm not convinced about this ID: Alice Springs is well outside the known distribution of E. apodophylla. See Atlas of Living Australia bie.ala.org.au/species/http://id.biodiversity.org.au/node/apni/… $\endgroup$
    – bshane
    Commented Sep 28, 2018 at 7:15
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    $\begingroup$ The tree stands in a maintained park and not in the wild... $\endgroup$
    – JulPal
    Commented Sep 28, 2018 at 14:20
  • $\begingroup$ @JulPal that's right, and is a good reminder why adding as much information as possible to a species ID question is important. Next task would be to estimate the age of the tree and the age of the park ;-) $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Nov 12, 2018 at 22:25
  • $\begingroup$ @uhoh have you read the first sentence of the OP? I cite: This is near Alice Springs NT, Australia, about -24°S latitude, 550m. Area is arid but it's in a maintained park. $\endgroup$
    – JulPal
    Commented Nov 17, 2018 at 14:13
  • $\begingroup$ @JulPal I don't understand; I am the OP, and I wrote that sentence. My point in the comment is that we (or at least I) don't know when the tree started growing there and when this plot first became a maintained park, so we don't know if the tree first grew there by itself and then later a park was built, or if the land was first cultivated and watered, and the tree was then planted there. However, if you are more familliar with Alice Springs, perhaps you can address that specifically? $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Nov 17, 2018 at 14:41

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