''Melaleuca serpentina'' 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 the

Barraba Barraba is a town in the New England region of northern New South Wales, Australia. It was formerly the centre of Barraba Shire local government area, but most of this, including Barraba, was absorbed into Tamworth Regional Council in 2004. On ...

district 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 continue to use the name ''Callistemon serpentinus''.) It is a shrub with yellow or creamy-green bottlebrush flowers. It is similar to '' Melaleuca citrina'' but can be distinguished from that species by its flower colour (red in ''M. citrina'') and its shorter

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

Description

''Melaleuca serpentina'' is a shrub growing to tall with hard, papery bark. Its leaves are arranged alternately and are long, wide, more or less flat, narrow elliptical to egg-shaped with the narrow end towards the base and an end tapering to a sharp point. The leaves have a mid-vein but the lateral veins are obscure and there are many distinct oil glands. The flowers are creamy green to yellow and are arranged in spikes on the ends of branches that continue to grow after flowering and also in the leaf axils. The spikes are in diameter with 15 to 35 individual flowers. The petals are long and fall off as the flower ages and there are 37 to 51 stamens in each flower. Flowering occurs in April, October and December and is followed by fruit that are woody capsules, long. Melaleuca serpentina (habit)

Melaleuca serpentina (leaves, flowers, fruits)

Taxonomy and naming

''Melaleuca serpentina'' was first formally described in 2009 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 ...

'' from a specimen collected adjacent to the Woodsreef

asbestos Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...

mine near

. In 2012, Udovicic and Spencer gave the species the name '' Callistemon serpentinus'', but in 2013, Craven transferred all species previously known as ''Callistemon'' to ''Melaleuca''. Some authorities continue to use ''Callistemon serpentinus''. 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 ...

(''serpentina'') refers to this species often occurring on soils derived from

serpentinite Serpentinite is a rock composed predominantly of one or more serpentine group minerals, the name originating from the similarity of the texture of the rock to that of the skin of a snake. Serpentinite has been called ''serpentine'' or ''ser ...

. ''Callistemon serpentinus'' is regarded as a synonym of ''Melaleuca serpentina'' by the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,100 ...

Distribution and habitat

''Melaleuca serpentina'' occurs in the Barraba district growing in grassy

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

on soils derived from serpentinite.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17595970 serpentina Flora of New South Wales Plants described in 2009 Taxa named by Lyndley Craven