Taxonomy
Specimens of E. piperita were first collected by First Fleet surgeon and naturalist John White, and published by James Edward Smith in his appendix to White's 1790 Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales. Smith gave it the specific epithet piperita because its odour of its essential oil was so similar to that of Mentha × piperita, the peppermint. White's Voyage also featured a plate showing the plant's leaves and old fruit, but no flowers.
Smith's description was republished in his 1793 A Specimen of the Botany of New Holland, but this did not stop Richard Anthony Salisbury publishing the same plant as Metrosideros aromatica in 1796. Other later synonyms include:
- Eucalyptus aromatica (Salisb.) Domin
- Eucalyptus bottii Blakely
- Eucalyptus piperita Sm. var. piperita
- Eucalyptus piperita Sm. subsp. piperita
- Eucalyptus piperita var. laxiflora Benth.
- Eucalyptus piperita subsp. urceolaris (Maiden & Blakely) L.A.S.Johnson & Blaxell
- Eucalyptus urceolaris Maiden & Blakely
Read more about this topic: Eucalyptus Piperita