''Melaleuca adnata'', commonly known as sandhill honey-myrtle, 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 tall shrub with papery bark and spikes of white flowers in spring and early summer.

Description

''Melaleuca adnata'' is an erect to spreading shrub up to tall with papery or fibrous bark. Its leaves are arranged in alternating pairs at right angles to the pairs above and below so that there are four rows of leaves along the stems. The leaves are elliptic to narrow egg-shaped, long, wide and crescent-shaped in cross-section. The petioles are attached the underside of the leaves ( peltate). The flowers are white to cream coloured and arranged in spikes on the sides of the branches. Each spike is up to in diameter and contains 8 to 50 individual flowers. The petals are long and usually fall of as the flower opens. The stamens are arranged in five bundles around the flowers and there are 10 to 16 stamens in a bundle. Flowering occurs between July and January and is followed by fruit which are woody capsules long in roughly cylindrical clusters along the stems. Melaleuca adnata (habit)

Taxonomy and naming

''Melaleuca adnata'' was first described in 1852 by Nikolai Turczaninow in ''Bulletin de la Classe Physico-Mathématique de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg''. 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 ...

(''adnata'') is derived from the Latin ''adnatus'', meaning " adnate", referring to the attachment of the leaves to the stem.

Distribution and habitat

''Melaleuca adnata'' occurs in and between the Kalbarri, Ongerup and Mount Holland districts in the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie, Esperance Plains, Geraldton Sandplains 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 ...

. It grows in sandy or clayey soils, sometimes over

laterite Laterite is both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by ...

, along drainage lines and flats.

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=Q15370507 adnata Myrtales of Australia Plants described in 1852 Endemic flora of Western Australia Taxa named by Nikolai Turczaninow