Family:
Myrtaceae Juss.

Melaleuca L.

This genus is accepted, and its native range is Indo-China to Australia, New Caledonia, Society Islands.

[FTEA]

Myrtaceae, B. Verdcourt, B.Sc., Ph.D.. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 2001

Morphology General Habit
Ericoid shrub or tree to 2.5 m with corky bark; leaves linear, 2–2.5 cm long, densely spirally arranged; flowers sessile forming one-sided inflorescences at base of branchlets (a “one-sided bottle brush”); staminal bundles and style crimson, ± 3 cm long.

[FZ]

Myrtaceae, F. White. Flora Zambesiaca 4. 1978

Distribution
A small genus of c. 25 species indigenous to Australia and New Caledonia.
Note
Their taxonomy is difficult and their nomenclature is uncertain. The capsules are woody and do not fall, so that the older stems consist of segments covered with old fruits alternating with bare segments. Several species are planted for their showy crimson flowers. Their flowers occur in dense or interrupted spikes and have numerous far-exserted filaments giving a bottle-brush appearance. The axis of the inflorescence grows on beyond the flowers and continues to produce leaves. These are the familiar and appropriately named “Bottle-Brush” plants. Several species are planted for their showy crimson flowers.

Native to:

Borneo, Cambodia, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Myanmar, New Caledonia, New Guinea, New South Wales, Norfolk Is., Northern Territory, Queensland, Society Is., South Australia, Sumatera, Tasmania, Thailand, Victoria, Vietnam, Western Australia

Introduced into:

Andaman Is., Bahamas, Belize, Benin, California, Canary Is., Cape Provinces, Caroline Is., China South-Central, China Southeast, Comoros, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Florida, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Hawaii, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Marianas, Mexico Gulf, New Zealand North, Nicaragua, Nicobar Is., Panamá, Puerto Rico, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tanzania, Trinidad-Tobago, Uganda, Yugoslavia

Melaleuca L. appears in other Kew resources:

Date Reference Identified As Barcode Type Status Has image?
16200.000 No

First published in Mant. Pl. 1: 14 (1767)

Accepted by

  • Govaerts, R. (2003). World Checklist of Selected Plant Families Database in ACCESS: 1-216203. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  • Govaerts, R., Sobral, N., Ashton, P., Barrie, F., Holst, B.K., Landrum, L.L., Matsumoto, K., Fernanda Mazine, F., Nic Lughadha, E., Proença, C. & al. (2008). World Checklist of Myrtaceae: 1-455. Kew Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Literature

Flora Zambesiaca

  • Mant. Pl. Alt. 1: 14 (1767).

  • Art and Illustrations in Digifolia

    Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew

  • Flora Zambesiaca

    Flora Zambesiaca
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Flora of Tropical East Africa

    Flora of Tropical East Africa
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2022. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2022. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0