''Melaleuca adenostyla'' 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 the south-west of Western Australia. It is a large, broom-like shrub to about high with narrow leaves and cream-coloured flowers and which often grows in saline places.

Description

''Melaleuca adenostyla'' is a shrub growing to about tall with mostly glabrous leaves and branches. The leaves are arranged in alternating pairs (

decussate Decussation is used in biological contexts to describe a crossing (due to the shape of the Roman numeral for ten, an uppercase 'X' (), ). In Latin anatomical terms, the form is used, e.g. . Similarly, the anatomical term chiasma is named aft ...

) and are long, wide, and linear or narrow elliptic in shape. The flowers are cream coloured and arranged in a spike at the ends of branches which continue to grow after flowering. Each spike contains between one and 12 individual flowers and is up to in diameter. The petals are long and fall off as the flower ages. The stamens are arranged in five bundles around the flower, each bundle containing 11 to 21 stamens. Flowering occurs in spring and is followed by fruit which are woody capsules long and partly buried in the branches. ''Melaleuca adenostyla'' resembles '' M. platycalyx'' except that the latter is somewhat smaller, has pinkish to mauve-coloured flowers and more (25-36) stamens in each bundle. ''M. adenostyla'' flowers have 11-21 stamens for each of its five bundles compared to 25-36 for ''M. platycalyx''. The leaves of ''M. adenostyla'' are also narrower than those of ''M. platycalyx''.

Taxonomy and naming

''Melaleuca adenostyla'' was first formally described in 1999 by

Kirsten Cowley Kirsten is both a given name and a surname. Given name Kirsten is a female given name. It is a Scandinavian form of the names Christina and Christine.Melaleuca fulgens ''Melaleuca fulgens'', commonly known as the scarlet honey myrtle, is a plant in the myrtle family Myrtaceae, and is endemic to Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. It is notable for its showy orange, red or purple flowe ...

'' from a specimen collected near Hyden. 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 ...

(''adenostyla'') means "glandular style".

Distribution and habitat

This melaleuca occurs in the Avon Wheatbelt and Mallee

biogeographic regions A biogeographic realm or ecozone is the broadest biogeographic division of Earth's land surface, based on distributional patterns of terrestrial organisms. They are subdivided into bioregions, which are further subdivided into ecoregions. De ...

of Western Australia from Dumbleyung east to the Hyden- Newdegate region of Western Australia. It grows in white or gravelly sand in saline floodways and depressions.

Conservation status

This species is classified as "not threatened" by the

Government of Western Australia The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of Western Australia. It is also commonly referred to as the WA Government o ...

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and en ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15370436 adenostyla Myrtales of Australia Plants described in 1999 Endemic flora of Western Australia