Melaleuca sapientes
species of plant
Melaleuca sapientes is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a small shrub with silky grey leaves and small heads of pinkish flowers in spring or early summer. The attractive, silvery foliage has made this melaleuca a popular garden plant under the incorrect name of Melaleuca holosericea, a similar but much rarer species.
Description
Melaleuca sapientes is a dense, spreading shrub growing to 1–3 m (3–10 ft) tall with whitish-grey, papery bark and silvery foliage. Its leaves are arranged alternately, mostly 6–19.5 mm (0.2–0.8 in) long, 0.8–2.1 mm (0.03–0.08 in) wide, linear to very narrow egg-shaped, usually half moon-shaped in cross section and covered with soft, silky hairs.
The flowers are a shade of pink or purple, arranged in heads on the ends of branches which continue to grow after flowering and sometimes also in the upper leaf axils. The heads are up to 20 mm (0.8 in) in diameter and contain two to six groups of flowers in threes. The outer surface of the flower cup (the hypanthium) is silky-hairy. The petals are 1.2–2 mm (0.05–0.08 in) long and fall off as the flower matures. Five bundles of stamens are seen around the flower, each with seven to nine stamens.
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This entry incorporates text from “Melaleuca sapientes” 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.