''Melaleuca beardii'' 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 similar to a number of other Western Australian melaleucas such as '' M. trichophylla'' with its purple pom-pom flower heads but unlike others, the tips of its leaves are rounded rather than pointed. Melaleuca beardii habit

Description

''Melaleuca beardii'' grows to a height of with stems and leaves that are glabrous except when young. Its leaves are arranged alternately, linear or narrow egg-shaped, long, wide with a rounded tip. The flowers are a shade of pink to purple and arranged in heads on the ends of branches which continue to grow after flowering, sometimes also in the upper leaf axils. The heads are up to in diameter and contain between 3 and 6 groups of flowers in threes. The stamens are arranged in bundles of five around the flower, with 8 to 13 stamens in each bundle. The flowering season is from October to December and is followed by fruit which are woody capsules, long in clusters. The clusters do not form a football shape as in some similar melaleucas.

Taxonomy and naming

''Melaleuca beardii'' was first formally described in 1999 by Lyndley Craven and

Brendan Lepschi Brendan John Lepschi (born 1969) is an Australian botanist, whose interests include the taxonomy of the genus ''Melaleuca'', the families Santalaceae and Goodeniaceae and how exotic species become naturalised. He is the curator of the Australi ...

in '' Australian Systematic Botany'' from a specimen collected near Carnamah. 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 ...

(''beardii'') is in honour of John Stanley Beard, an Australian Ecology, ecologist.

Distribution and habitat

This melaleuca occurs in the Arrino, Western Australia, Arrino and Gunyidi, Western Australia, Gunyidi districts in the Avon Wheatbelt and Geraldton Sandplains IBRA, biogeographic regions where it grows in sand on sandplains.

Conservation status

''Melaleuca beardii'' is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife (Western Australia), Department of Parks and Wildlife.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6810990 Melaleuca, beardii Myrtales of Australia Plants described in 1999 Endemic flora of Western Australia Taxa named by Lyndley Craven