The flat foot (platypus) refers to the flat strap-like peduncle, more than an inch long and up to ½ inch wide that supports the cluster of seven buds. The opercula are long and narrower than the fruit and contain greenish stamens. If left to itself the tree prefers to grow low and multistemmed as a mallee, but the eight specimens on Campus Drive between Bonair Siding and Maples Pavilion are in a location where a thicket is undesirable and they have been pruned accordingly. The trunks are smooth with patchwork coloring ranging from orangish through light gray to dark gray, according to years of age.
Two specimens in need of attention are on Serra Street against the fence of the Recycling Center. The closely related red-flowered moort, E. nutans, used to be represented on the Eucalypt Walk on Campus Drive East.
The tree belongs to the series of Cornutae; the resemblance to E. cornuta, E. lehmannii, E. macrandra, and E. megacornuta is easily recognizable. (However, Fl. Australia, 19 (1988) places E. platypus in Ser. 47 Elongatae, Page 218; E. erythronema is the type. Dean Nicolle’s Classification of the Eucalypts (version 1) places it in series Erectae.)
The wood is extremely hard and dense, very good for making bullroarers.
Related material: Eucalyptus checklist.
About this Entry: The main text of this entry is from the book Trees of Stanford and Environs, by Ronald Bracewell, published 2005. Parenthetical notes on series added by John Rawlings, ca. 2007, and Sairus Patel, Dec 2017.