Melaleuca megalongensis
species of plant
Melaleuca megalongensis, commonly known as Megalong Valley bottlebrush, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to New South Wales. (Some Australian state herbaria use the name Callistemon megalongensis). It is a shrub similar to Melaleuca citrina (Callistemon citrinus) which occurs in the same area and is difficult to distinguish from it, except when in flower.
Description
Melaleuca megalongensis is a shrub growing to 5 m (20 ft) tall with soft, flaking or peeling bark. Its leaves are arranged alternately and are 35–55 mm (1–2 in) long, 3.5–5 mm (0.1–0.2 in) wide, flat, narrow elliptic to narrow egg-shaped with the narrow end towards the base. There is a mid-vein and 15 to 24 lateral veins. The leaves usually have some thickening at the mid-vein and margins.
The flowers are arranged in spikes on the ends of branches which continue to grow after flowering and are 30–40 mm (1–2 in) in diameter with 25 to 60 individual flowers. The petals are 3.0–3.7 mm (0.12–0.15 in) long and fall off as the flower ages and there are 45-50 stamens in each flower. The filaments of the stamens are pink with a dark red anther.
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This entry incorporates text from “Melaleuca megalongensis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.