Melaleuca

Moonah Melaleuca lanceolata, from Ken Sarkies.

Belongs within: Melaleuceae.

Melaleuca is a genus of over 200 species of trees and shrubs found mostly in Australia. Many species are known as 'paperbarks' due to their production of a thick bark that peels away in thin sheets. Other species, such as the black tea tree M. bracteata, have hard, rough bark whereas yet others have fibrous bark. A few species have become notorious as invasives in other parts of the world such as the broad-leaved paperbark M. quinquenervia in Florida. Cajuput M. cajuputi is used commercially as a source for essential oil.

Characters (from Wilson 2011): Leaves opposite, alternate or irregularly arranged; petiolate, sessile or peltately attached. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, spike- or head-like, the terminal bud usually growing on, occasionally aborting. Flowers pentamerous, white, yellowish, pink, red or mauve; sepals small, triangular to semicircular; petals free; stamens numerous, fused into bundles opposite petals; anthers dorsifixed, versatile; ovary half-inferior, trilocular, with several to many erect ovules in each loculus; style filiform, stigma simple or capitate. Fruit a loculicidal capsule, only rarely exserted from the fruiting hypanthium; seeds linear. 2n=22, 24 or 33.

<==Melaleuca L. 1767 KC01
    |--M. acerosa HR01
    |--M. acuminata G04b
    |--M. adnata G04b
    |--M. agathosmoides G04b
    |--M. alsophila LK14
    |--M. argentea LK14
    |--M. bracteata M65
    |--M. cajuputi LK14
    |--M. cardiophylla G04b
    |--M. cliffortioides G04b
    |--M. conothamnoides M93
    |--M. cordata G04b
    |--M. coronicarpa G04b
    |--M. corrugata Black ex Eardley 1965 E65
    |--M. cucullata G04b
    |--M. cuticularis SM06
    |--M. dealbata LK14
    |--M. deanei von Mueller 1887 M87
    |--M. decora [incl. M. genisitifolia] C74
    |--M. densa GK00
    |--M. eleuterostachya EF04
    |--M. elliptica M87
    |--M. eriantha M87
    |--M. ericifolia SN08
    |--M. foliolosa M87
    |--M. fulgens G04a
    |--M. genistifolia C16
    |--M. globifera FS54
    |--M. glomerata MLP09
    |--M. halmaturorum G04b
    |--M. howeana P82
    |--M. hugelii M99
    |--M. hypericifolia MB08
    |--M. incana M99
    |--M. irbyana M65
    |--M. johnsonii G04b
    |--M. lanceolata G04b
    |--M. lateriflora G04b
    |--M. lateritia GK00
    |--M. laxiflora G04b
    |--M. lecanantha OS04
    |--M. leiocarpa G04a
    |--M. leptoclada GK00
    |--M. leucadendra LK14
    |    |--M. l. var. leucadendra C16
    |    `--M. l. var. cunninghami C16
    |--M. linariifolia B14
    |--M. minutifolia LK14
    |--M. nematophylla G04a
    |--M. nervosa LK14
    |--M. nesophila WO05
    |--M. nodosa M65
    |--M. parviflora M87
    |--M. pauciflora GK00
    |--M. pauperiflora G04b
    |--M. pentagona G04b
    |--M. phoidophylla G04b
    |--M. preissiana RL06
    |--M. pritzelii GK00
    |--M. pubescens FS54
    |--M. pungens G04b
    |--M. quadrifaria G04b
    |--M. quinquenervia C74
    |--M. radula S95
    |--M. rhaphiophylla SM06
    |--M. rigidifolia G04b
    |--M. saligna C16
    |--M. sapientes G04b
    |--M. sericea LK14
    |--M. sieberi M65
    |--M. spathulata GK00
    |--M. squarrosa SN08
    |--M. striata CFH05
    |--M. styphelioides B00
    |--M. subtrigona OS04
    |--M. symphyocarpa C16
    |--M. systena SM06
    |--M. teretifolia SM06
    |--M. teuthidoides G04b
    |--M. thymifolia C08
    |--M. thymoides GK00
    |--M. tuberculata OS04
    |--M. uncinata OS04
    |--M. viminalis LK14
    |--M. viminea SM06
    |--M. violacea GK00
    `--M. viridiflora WO05 [=M. leucadendron var. viridiflora C16]

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[B14] Bouchard, P. (ed.) 2014. The Book of Beetles: A lifesize guide to six hundred of nature's gems. Ivy Press: Lewes (United Kingdom).

[B00] Braby, M. F. 2000. Butterflies of Australia: their identification, biology and distribution vol. 2. CSIRO Publishing: Collingwood (Victoria).

[C08] Cambage, R. H. 1908. Notes on the native flora of New South Wales. Part VI. Deepwater to Torrington and Emmaville. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 33 (1): 45–65, pls 1–2.

[C16] Cambage, R. H. 1916. Notes on the native flora of tropical Queensland. Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales 49 (3): 389–447, pls 57–61.

[CFH05] Cochrane, J. A., J. A. Friend & S. J. E. Hill. 2005. Endozoochory and the Australian bluebell: comsumption of Billardiera fusiformis (Labill.) Payer (Pittosporaceae) seeds by three mammal species at Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 88 (4): 191–196.

[C74] Crowder, J. P. 1974. Exotic Plant Pests of South Florida. Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife (USA).

[E65] Eardley, C. M. 1965. Diagnoses to new taxa. In: Black, J. M., & E. L. Robertson Flora of South Australia. Part IV. Oleaceae–Compositae pp. 945–946. W. L. Hawes, Government Printer: Adelaide.

[EF04] Etten, E. J. B. van, & J. E. D. Fox. 2004. Vegetation classification and ordination of the central Hamersley Ranges, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 87 (2): 63–79.

[FS54] Fairbridge, R. W., & V. N. Serventy. 1954. Physiography. In: Willis, J. H. (ed.) The Archipelago of the Recherche pp. 9–28. Australian Geographical Society: Melbourne.

[G04a] Gibson, N. 2004a. Flora and vegetation of the Eastern Goldfields Ranges: part 6. Mt Manning Range. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 87 (2): 35–47.

[G04b] Gibson, N. 2004b. Flora and vegetation of the Eastern Goldfields Ranges: part 7. Middle and South Ironcap, Digger Rock and Hatter Hill. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 87 (2): 49–62.

[GK00] Gibson, N., & G. J. Keighery. 2000. Flora and vegetation of the Byenup-Muir reserve system, south-west Western Australia. CALMScience 3 (3): 323–402.

[HR01] Hale, R. J., & D. C. F. Rentz. 2001. The Gryllacrididae: an overview of the world fauna with emphasis on Australian examples. In: Field, L. H. (ed.) The Biology of Wetas, King Crickets and Their Allies pp. 95–110. CABI Publishing: Wallingford (UK).

[KC01] Kirk, P. M., P. F. Cannon, J. C. David & J. A. Stalpers. 2001. Ainsworth & Bisby's Dictionary of the Fungi 9^th ed. CAB International: Wallingford (UK).

[LK14] Lyons, M. N., G. J. Keighery, L. A. Gibson & T. Handasyde. 2014. Flora and vegetation communities of selected islands off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 81: 205–244.

[MB08] Maiden, J. H., & E. Betche. 1908. Notes from the Botanic Gardens, Sydney. No. 13. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 33: 304–319.

[M99] Matthews, M. 1999. Heliothine Moths of Australia: A guide to bollworms and related noctuid groups. CSIRO Publishing.

[MLP09] McKenzie, N. L., S. van Leeuwen & A. M. Pinder. 2009. Introduction to the Pilbara Biodiversity Survey, 2002–2007. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 78 (1): 3–89.

[M65] Michener, C. D. 1965. A classification of the bees of the Australian and South Pacific regions. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 130: 1–362.

[M93] Mollemans, F. H. 1993. Drummondita wilsonii, Philotheca langei and P. basistyla (Rutaceae), new species from south-west Western Australia. Nuytsia 9: 95–109.

[M87] Mueller, F. von. 1887. Some hitherto undescribed plants of New South Wales. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, series 2, 1 (4): 1105–1110.

[OS04] Obbens, F. J., & L. W. Sage. 2004. Vegetation and flora of a diverse upland remnant of the Western Australian wheatbelt (Nature Reserve A21064). Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 87 (1): 19–28.

[P82] Pickard, J. 1982. Catastrophic disturbance and vegetation on Little Slope, Lord Howe Island. Australian Journal of Ecology 7: 161–170.

[RL06] Rafferty, C., & B. B. Lamont. 2006. Food choice by western grey kangaroos among plants grown at different nutrient levels. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 89 (1): 7–12.

[SN08] Schmidt, E. R., & T. R. New. 2008. The Psocoptera (Insecta) of Tasmania, Australia. Memoirs of Museum Victoria 65: 71–152.

[SM06] Semeniuk, C. A., L. A. Milne, P. Ladd & V. Semeniuk. 2006. Pollen in the surface sediments of wetlands in the Becher Point area, southwestern Australia: a baseline for use in interpreting Holocene sequences. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 89 (1): 27–43.

[S95] Smith, G. T. 1995. Species richness, habitat and conservation of scorpions in the Western Australian wheatbelt. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 52: 55–66.

[WO05] Wilson, P. G., M. M. O'Brien, M. M. Heslewood & C. J. Quinn. 2005. Relationships within Myrtaceae sensu lato based on a matK phylogeny. Plant Systematics and Evolution 251: 3–19.

Last updated: 26 January 2022.