An incredibly rare eucalypt found in some of the most densely developed areas of Sydney has been confirmed as a new species.
Using genomic sequencing, scientists have confirmed it is a distinct species of eucalypt. It is estimated that only 700 individual trees are left in the Hills district in Sydney’s north-west.
The yet-to-be formally named species is an unassuming shrubby type of eucalypt with no main trunk. It was first spotted in the suburbs in the 1990s, but it is only now, through the use of genomic sequencing, that scientists can say with certainty that it is a distinctive new species.
