Melaleuca lanceolata
species of plant
Melaleuca lanceolata commonly known as black paperbark, moonah, Rottnest Island teatree and western black tea tree is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is native to Australia where it occurs in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. It is a densely foliaged tree with rough bark, which flowers prolifically in summer.
Description
Melaleuca lanceolata is a large shrub or small tree growing up to 10 m (30 ft) tall, with rough, dark grey bark on a trunk that is often twisted and bent by the effects of wind. Its branchlets and leaves are covered with soft, silky hairs when young but become glabrous as they mature. The leaves are arranged alternately, 3.1–12.5 mm (0.1–0.5 in) long, 0.7–1.9 mm (0.03–0.07 in) wide, linear to narrow elliptic in shape with a concave upper surface.
The flowers are white or cream coloured and arranged in spikes on the ends of branches which continue to grow after flowering, sometimes also in the upper leaf axils. The spikes are up to 60 mm (2 in) long, 23 mm (0.9 in) in diameter and contain 3 to 12 groups of flowers in threes. The petals are 1.5–3 mm (0.06–0.1 in) long and fall off as the flower ages. The stamens are arranged in five bundles around the flowers with 7 to 20 stamens per bundle. The flowering season is mainly in summer but flowers may also appear randomly through the year.
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This entry incorporates text from “Melaleuca lanceolata” 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.