Family: Myrtaceae
Plant: A dense shrub up to 3m high with slender arching branches and a pale grey papery bark.
Flowers: Orange to dull red bottlebrush-like spikes, 3-5cm long borne on lateral shoots from the older wood.
Flowering: October-January.
Fruit: Urn-shaped ovoid capsule up to 1cm across with erect calyx-teeth around the rim and borne in cylindrical clusters on old wood.
Leaves: Lanceolate or elliptic, 1-4cm long and up to 1cm wide with a prominent mid-rib. The leaves are borne in opposite pairs with successive pairs at right angles to one another. The leaves are aromatic and may take on a reddish tinge during winter.
Habitat: Near water and on damp soil on heathland, headlands and dry sclerophyll forest.
Features: Orange-red bottlebrush-like flowers. Arching branches. Characteristic arrangement of the leaves. Cylindrical clusters of fruit capsules on old wood.
Name:
Melaleuca From Greek melas = black and leucos = white (referring to its black wood and white branches)
hypericifolia From its leaves being similar to those of Hypericum
|
Type |
Shrub |
|
|
Flowers |
Form |
Cylindrical, Cluster |
|
|
Colour(s) |
Orange, Red |
|
|
Petal/Sepal No. |
- |
|
|
Flowering Month |
1. 10, 11, 12 |
|
Fruit |
Type |
Capsule |
|
|
Colour |
Brown |
|
|
Other Features |
Woody, Hard |
|
Leaves |
Arrangement |
Opposite |
|
|
Type |
Simple |
|
|
Shape |
Oval |
|
|
Length |
Short |
|
|
Margins |
Entire |
|
|
Attachment |
Unstalked |
|
|
Other Features |
Aromatic |
|
Bark |
Papery/Flaky |
|
|
Habitat |
Dry sclerophyll forest, Heathland |
|