''Melaleuca clarksonii'', commonly known as Alice River bottlebrush, 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 Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, Australia. It is similar to ''

Melaleuca cajuputi ''Melaleuca cajuputi'', commonly known as cajuput or white samet is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is widespread in Australia, Southeast Asia, New Guinea and the Torres Strait islands. It is a medium to tall tree with papery bark, ...

'' and ''

Melaleuca leucadendra ''Melaleuca leucadendra'', commonly known as weeping paperbark, long-leaved paperbark or white paperbark is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is widespread in northern Australia, Southeast Asia, New Guinea and the Torres Strait Island ...

'' with its broad leaves and spikes of creamy-coloured flowers but is distinguished from them by its (usually) hard, fibrous bark.

Description

''Melaleuca clarksonii'' is a tree growing up to tall usually with hard, fibrous, but sometimes also papery bark. Its leaves are arranged alternately, long, wide, ovate to elliptical in shape, with a distinct petiole long and 5 to 9 parallel veins. The flowers are white to greenish-cream coloured, in spikes on the ends of branches which continue to grow after flowering. The spikes are up to in diameter and contain 9 to 15 groups of 3 flowers per group. The

sepals A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

are long and the petals are long and fall of as the flower matures. The stamens are arranged in five bundles around the flower, each bundle containing 6 to 9 stamens. Flowers appear in May and the fruit which follow are woody capsules long in loose clusters along the stems.

Taxonomy and naming

''Melaleuca clarksonii'' was first formally described in 1997 by Bryan Barlow 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 located in the

Mitchell-Alice Rivers National Park Errk Oykangand (formerly known as Mitchell-Alice Rivers until 2009) is a national park in Queensland, Australia, 1748 km northwest of Brisbane. Today, this protected area is jointly managed by the Queensland government and the traditional Ab ...

. 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 ...

(''clarksonii'') honours John Richard Clarkson, a north Queensland botanist, who assisted in the collected of the

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

specimens.

Distribution and habitat

''Melaleuca clarksonii'' is found in the Cape York Peninsula bioregion, including in the Mitchell-Alice Rivers National Park in the west, the Jack Lakes in the south-east and the Wenlock River district. It grows in forests and woodlands, sometimes in pure stands, around swamps and clay pans in areas that are flooded in the wet season.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15371146 clarksonii Flora of Queensland Plants described in 1997 Trees of Australia