''Melaleuca sabrina'' is a plant in the myrtle family,

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 to a small area near the border between New South Wales and Queensland in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. (Some Australian state herbaria use the name ''Callistemon sabrina''.) It is a shrub with fibrous bark and red or pink bottlebrush flowers, tipped with yellow in spring and summer. It is similar to ''

Melaleuca paludicola ''Melaleuca paludicola'', commonly known as river bottlebrush, is a plant in the myrtle family Myrtaceae, and is endemic to eastern Australia. (Some Australian state herbaria continue to use the names ''Callistemon sieberi'' or ''Callistemon pal ...

'' but distinguished from it by its stamens, which are almost twice as long as those of ''M. paludicola''.

Description

''Melaleuca sabrina'' is a shrub growing to tall with fibrous bark. Its leaves are arranged alternately and are long, wide, more or less flat and linear to very narrow egg-shaped with the narrow end towards the base. The leaves have a mid-vein and 11-20 indistinct lateral veins. The flowers are a shade of red or pink, tipped with yellow and are arranged in spikes in diameter with 5 to 25 individual flowers. The petals are long and fall off as the flower ages and there are 49 to 73 stamens in each flower. Flowering occurs from October to March and is followed by fruit that are woody capsules, long. Melaleuca sabrina (habit)

Taxonomy and naming

''Melaleuca sabrina'' was first formally described in 2009 by Lyndley Craven 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 ...

(''sabrina'') is the name of a river nymph in

Celtic mythology Celtic mythology is the body of myths belonging to the Celtic peoples.Cunliffe, Barry, (1997) ''The Ancient Celts''. Oxford, Oxford University Press , pp. 183 (religion), 202, 204–8. Like other Iron Age Europeans, Celtic peoples followed a ...

, who was supposed to live in the River Severn in the United Kingdom - the type specimen for ''Melaleuca sabrina'' was found near the Severn River in Queensland. ''Callistemon sabrina'' is regarded as a synonym of ''Melaleuca sabrina'' by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Distribution and habitat

''Melaleuca sabrina'' occurs in and between the Stanthorpe district in Queensland and Tenterfield in New South Wales where it grows along the banks of watercourses and between granite boulders.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17595971

sabrina Sabrina may refer to: * Sabrina (given name), a feminine given name, including a list of persons and fictional characters with the name People * Sabrina (actress), stage name of Norma Ann Sykes (1936–2016), a British glamour model and actres ...

Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Plants described in 2009 Taxa named by Lyndley Craven