''Melaleuca hemisticta'', commonly known as Mount Wheeler bottlebrush, is a plant in the myrtle

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Myrtaceae Myrtaceae, the myrtle family, is a family of dicotyledonous plants placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, pōhutukawa, bay rum tree, clove, guava, acca (feijoa), allspice, and eucalyptus are some notable members of this group. All speci ...

and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to coastal areas of

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. (Some Australian state herbaria continue to use the name ''Callistemon hemistictus''.) It is a tall, bushy shrub with dark green leaves and red flowers spikes tipped with yellow.

Description

''Melaleuca hemisticta'' is a shrub growing to tall with grey, papery or fibrous bark. Its leaves are arranged alternately and are long, wide, flat, mostly narrow egg-shaped with a mid-vein and 15 to 30 branching veins. The flowers are arranged in spikes on the ends of branches which continue to grow after flowering and sometimes on the sides of the branches. The spikes are in diameter with 10 to 50 individual flowers. The petals are long and fall off as the flower ages. There are 35-53 stamens in each flower with red filaments and yellow anthers. Flowering occurs from March to September and is followed by fruit which are woody capsules, long.

Taxonomy and naming

''Melaleuca hemisticta'' was first formally described in 2006 by

Lyndley Craven Lyndley Alan Craven (3 September 1945 – 11 July 2014) was a botanist who became the Principal Research Scientist of the Australian National Herbarium. Lyndley ("Lyn") Craven worked for the CSIRO plant taxonomy unit of the New Guinea Survey Gro ...

in ''

Novon The Missouri Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located at 4344 Shaw Boulevard in St. Louis, Missouri. It is also known informally as Shaw's Garden for founder and philanthropist Henry Shaw. Its herbarium, with more than 6.6 million s ...

''. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''hemisticta'') is from Greek meaning "half" and "spotted", referring to the oil glands in the leaves being only in the lower half of the leaf. ''Callistemon hemistictus'' is regarded as a synonym of ''Melaleuca hemisticta'' by the

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It was launched in March 2017 with the ultimate aim being "to enable users to access information on all the world's known seed-bearing plants by ...

Distribution and habitat

''Melaleuca hemisticta'' occurs in coastal Queensland in and between the

Bowen Bowen may refer to: Places Australia * Bowen, Queensland, a town * Bowen Hills, Queensland, a suburb ** Bowen Hills railway station, a railway station in Bowen Hills ** Bowen Park, Brisbane, a park in Bowen Hills * Bowen Bridge, crossing the Derw ...

and

Bundaberg Bundaberg is a city in the Bundaberg Region, Queensland, Australia, and is the tenth largest city in the state. Bundaberg's regional area has a population of 70,921, and is a major centre of the Wide Bay–Burnett geographical region. The Bun ...

regions, on nearby islands and on Mount Stewart near Townsville, where it grows in a range of habitats but often on the sides of cliffs.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17595982 hemisticta Flora of Queensland Plants described in 2006 Taxa named by Lyndley Craven