Melaleuca bracteosa
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Common name: ...
Conservation status: ...
Etymology:
Melaleuca is derived from the Ancient Greek μέλας (mélas) meaning "dark" or "black" and λευκός (leukós) meaning "white"
Flowers
Fruit:
Leaves:
Stem & branches:
Roots:
Habit:
Habitat:
Distribution:
Additional notes:
Melaleuca bracteosa is a low, spreading shrub in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It has tiny, fleshy, non-prickly leaves and cream flowerheads.
Description
Melaleuca bracteosa is sometimes an erect shrub to a height of 1.5 metres (5 ft) but is more usually a low, dense spreading shrub to about 0.5 m (2 ft). Its leaves are narrow oval in shape, 2.7–9 mm (0.1–0.4 in) long and 0.9–1.5 mm (0.04–0.06 in), glabrous, bright green and fleshy with a blunt tip.
The flowers are usually bright cream coloured but sometimes white or mauve-pink. They are in heads, sometimes on the ends of branches and sometimes on the sides of the stem, each head about 16 mm (0.6 in) in diameter and containing 5 to 20 individual flowers. The stamens are arranged in five bundles around the flower, each bundle containing 3 to 8 stamens. The flowering season lasts from August to November and is followed by fruit which are woody capsules 2.4–3.2 mm (0.09–0.1 in) long.[2][3]
Habit at Cape Riche
Fruit
Taxonomy and naming
This species was first formally described in 1847 by the Russian botanist Nikolai Turczaninow in Bulletin de la classe physico-mathematique de l'Academie Imperiale des sciences de Saint-Petersburg.[4][5] The specific epithet (bracteosa) is from the Latin bractea, meaning bract, referring to the persistent bracts of the flowers.[3]
Distribution and habitat
This melaleuca occurs from the Pingrup district south to Albany and east to Ravensthorpe in the Avon Wheatbelt, Esperance Plains, Jarrah Forest and Mallee biogeographic regions.[6] It grows in sand, loam or clay on winter-wet flats or plains[7] often under low trees or tall shrubs.[2]
Conservation status
Melaleuca bracteosa is classified as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife.[6]
Uses
Essential oils
This species produces sesquiterpene oils at a rate of 0.3% (weight for weight) from fresh leave
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