Eucalyptus tetrodonta

Eucalyptus tetrodonta is a tree that typically grows to a height of and forms a lignotuber. It has rough, fibrous or stringy, grey over reddish brown bark on the trunk and branches. Young plants and coppice regrowth have egg-shaped to broadly lance-shaped leaves that are the same shade of dull bluish green on both sides, arranged in opposite pairs, long and wide. Adult leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, the same shade of dull bluish green on both sides, lance-shaped to broadly lance-shaped or curved, long and wide, tapering to a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in leaf axils in groups of three on an unbranched peduncle long, the individual buds on pedicels up to long. Mature buds are oval to pear-shaped, long and wide with a rounded operculum. Sometimes there are four ribs on the sides of the operculum. Flowering occurs between June and September and the flowers are whitish or cream-coloured. The fruit is a woody, cylindrical capsule long and wide with a vertically descending disc and three or four valves at rim level. The seeds are grey, flattened oval and long. ==Taxonomy and naming==

Eucalyptus tetrodonta was first formally described by the botanist Ferdinand von Mueller in 1859 in Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Botany. The specific epithet is derived from the ancient Greek words meaning "four" and "a tooth", in reference to the four teeth sometimes found around the rim of the fruit. The closest relative of this tree is E. megasepala. ==Distribution and habitat==

The Darwin stringybark is found on flats and plateaus in the Kimberley region of Western Australia region where it grows on flat areas and plateaus in sandy soils over laterite, sandstone or quartzite. The range extends eastward across the Top End of the Northern Territory and parts of the Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape York regions in North Queensland. It is usually a part of open forest or woodland communities. ==Conservation status==

This eucalypt is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife, ==Uses==

Yolngu peoples use various types of stringybark for painting on, including Eucalyptus tetradonta, which is known as gaḏayka, meaning "the word" or "message". The bark of this stringybark was used to create the Yirrkala bark petitions, which were presented to the Australian Parliament in 1963. ==See also==