Melaleuca bracteosa 

Location & distribution maps

Plant  information

Common name:         ...

Conservation status: ...

Etymology:   

• Melaleuca is derived from the Ancient Greek μέλας (mélas) meaning "dark" or "black" and λευκός (leukós) meaning "white"

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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.

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• 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.

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• 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]

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• Habit at Cape Riche

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• 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]

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• 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]

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• Conservation status

• Melaleuca bracteosa is classified as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife.[6]

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• Uses

• Essential oils

• This species produces sesquiterpene oils at a rate of 0.3% (weight for weight) from fresh leave

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melaleuca_bracteosa (2023)