Name
Corymbia tessellaris commonly referred to as Moreton Bay ash is from the family Myrtaceae. The botanical name is Latin, tessellaris, meaning tessellated, referring to the distinctive lower proportion of the bark being of a dark roughly square shaped scaly appearance. The bark then has an abrupt change to a smooth white or greyish white bark above.

Characteristics
Corymbia tessellaris varies from a medium sized tree 12 – 15m in height to a tall tree reaching 35m in height and 1m d.b.h. The trunk is nearly always straight and forms one-half to two thirds of the total tree height, giving way to a crown of slender branches with pendulous branchlets.

Moreton Bay ash may be found in warm semi-arid areas to hot humid areas, and can tolerate a varying annual rainfall amount from 400mm to 3500mm in the tropical areas where monsoon rainfall events occur. In higher rainfall areas the species occur in open-forest formation, and in the drier inland areas will mostly form woodlands. In many coastal areas C. tessellaris occurs as a sclerophyll forest complete with an understorey of vine forest species, often occurring as a result of decreased fire frequencies. The trees may be found on extensive plains and undulating topography on many soil types, however are know to suit deep sandy loams derived from sedimentary rocks and on alluvial soils.

At Nelly Bay Habitat Reserve
Corymbia tessellaris tall open woodland has a varying canopy height from 10-18m with a shrubby and grassy understory. Other locally common species include Eucalyptus intermedia, E. alba, Melaleuca leucadendra, Pleiogynium timorense and Canarium australianum. A understory layer of shrubs includes Planchonia careya, Pandanus spp., Alphitonia excelsa, Timonius timon and Acacia spp. A ground layer is made up of Hyptis suaveolens, Heteropogon contortus and H. triticeus.