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Eucalyptus lunata 'Moon Lagoon'(Fine-Leafed Mallee) - A shrubby small Eucalyptus that can reach to 12 to 15 feet tall with small rounded spade-shaped, gray-green juvenile leaves flushed a pale purple that mature to a leaf that is green with a curved boomerang shape. If left to mature, in spring to summer appear reddish orange caps that open to expose white flowers. This plant can also be cut hard every few years to maintain it as a medium sized shrub to 4 feet tall and to promote the fine textured and aromatic juvenile growth that has become very popular in the California cut foliage market.
Plant in full sun to light shade. Irrigate occasionally to infrequently. Hardy to about 23 F but can resprout when top growth frozen back - root hardiness not known. A nice fine-textured shrub for the garden and for cut foliage that looks good up to 2 weeks in the vase.
Eucalyptus 'Moon Lagoon' was first thought to possibly be a naturally occurring hybrid but was also at times listed as a selection of the rare Eucalyptus latens, a species known only from one dense stand in the jarrah forests of the south-eastern corner of Western Australia that is sometimes included with the more widespread E. foecunda in the Proantherae series of Eucalyptus. In the July 2012 issue of Nuytsia, the journal of the Western Australian Herbarium there is an article titled "Notes on the identity and status of Western Australian phrase names in Corymbia and Eucalyptus (Myrtaceae)" by Dean Nicolle, Malcolm French and Kevin Thiele. In this article they list a Eucalyptus sp. Sullivan Soak (D. Nicolle & M. French DN 5503) and note that "both E. sp. Sullivan Soak and E. latens are members of E. ser. Porantherae, in which a number of potentially undescribed taxa have been identified and which is the subject of an extensive and long-term taxonomic study". They further note that "Eucalyptus sp. Sullivan Soak has been known in cultivation since the 1990's under the name Eucalyptus 'Moon Lagoon'. We are unaware who coined the name, or why, although the taxon is the dominant species in the vicinity of a crescent-shaped salt lake with a distinctive lunette just east of Lake Magenta Nature Reserve." We have grown this attractive plant since 2008.
The information about Eucalyptus lunata 'Moon Lagoon' that is displayed on this web page is based on research conducted in our nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We will also include observations made about this plant as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens that we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We also incorporate comments that we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they share cultural information that aids others growing this plant.
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