''Melaleuca orophila'', commonly known as needle bottlebrush or Flinders Ranges 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 the eastern part of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. (Some Australian state herbaria continue to use the name '' Callistemon teretifolius''). It is a medium-sized shrub with sharp-pointed, needle-like leaves and bright red bottlebrush flower spikes.

Description

''Melaleuca orophila'' is a shrub growing to tall with hard, fissured bark and rigid branches. Its leaves are arranged alternately and are long, wide, linear in shape and circular or almost so in cross section. The flowers are bright red or orange-green and arranged in spikes on the ends of branches which continue to grow after flowering and also on the sides of the branches. The spikes are in diameter with 12 to 55 individual flowers. The petals are long and fall off as the flower ages and there are 25–42 stamens in each flower. Flowering occurs in spring and is followed by fruit which are woody capsules, long.

Taxonomy and naming

''Melaleuca orophila'' was first named 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 ...

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 ...

when he transferred the species from ''

Callistemon ''Callistemon'' is a genus of shrubs in the family Myrtaceae, first described as a genus in 1814. The entire genus is endemic to Australia but widely cultivated in many other regions and naturalised in scattered locations. Their status as a se ...

''. 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 ...

(''orophila'') is derived from the Greek words ''óros'' (ὄρος) meaning "mountain" and ''phílos'' (φίλος) meaning "loving", hence "mountain-loving", in reference to the preferred habitat of this species. ''Callistemon teretifolius'' was first formally described in 1853 by botanist

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

in the journal ''Linnaea''. ''Callistemon teretifolius'' is regarded as a synonym of ''Melaleuca orophila'' 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 orophila'' occurs mainly in the Flinders Ranges, especially between Williamstown and Mount Crawford. It grows in mallee and

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 ...

in rocky situations.

Conservation

''Melaleuca orophila'' is classified as "vulnerable" by the Government of South Australia Department for Environment and Heritage.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5022793 orophila Flora of South Australia Plants described in 2006 Taxa named by Lyndley Craven