Posted by Gus on 3/25/2008, 11:12 am, in reply to "Taxonomy"
Link: EUCALYPTOLOGICS
83.34.20.27
I was replying to this the other day and then a power shortage made me lose all the blabla!!
It is intrincate. But I often find aid from the idea of seeing the classification as a tree itself. An eucalypt, of course. It does not matter that much the names given to the different subgenera, sections, subsections, etc. It matters seeing that from a same "root", there are several main trunks that do divide and keep dividing to the twigs (species). So, when two species are close twigs (e.g. same series), I call them "close cousins". They normally can cross quite easily (at least "in theory", since there are other factors that play here, besides compatibility).
Classifications have varied with different authors along time, but the base idea is the same 
For the species you mention, E. maidenii and E. bicostata are so very close that some do consider them just subspecies of E. globulus (hence E. globulus ssp. maidenii and E. globulus ssp. bicostata). And intermediate forms between these (so, genetically, intergrades, botanically we could say E. bicostata x maidenii, or E. globulus x bicostata if retaining them in nomenclature as species instead of subspecies) are very common all over Victoria Same series, same subseries.
E. maidenii x mannifera would be more difficult to hybridise! But still possibly not impossible. Same subgenus, same section.
Now, crossing Corymbia and Eucalyptus (different genera or different subgenera, depending on the classification, or very distant "trunks" if you look at the "taxonomic tree") is not possible (as reported until today)
So, in the end, classifications are (among other things) a way to measure "taxonomic distance" and link it to "reproductive distance", or the ability of two different "strains" to hybridise and produce viable offspring (be it in their native habitat, or when planted together elsewhere). Same way you can cross a tiger and a lion, a zebra and a horse, but not a cat and a dog
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