''Melaleuca coccinea'', commonly known as the goldfields bottlebrush is a shrub 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 the south of Western Australia. It is distinguished by its unusual foliage and bottlebrush spikes of red flowers.

Description

''Melaleuca coccinea'' grows to a height of about with many slender, tangled 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 ...

) along the branches, lack a stalk, are , wide, egg-shaped to heart-shaped, dished and have a pointed but not sharp end. The flowers are brilliant red, arranged in bottlebrush-like spikes, long and about diameter on side branches. The

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s are long and fall off soon after the flower opens. The stamens, which give the flowers their colour, are arranged in five bundles, each containing 11 to 15 stamens. Flowers appear in spring and summer and are following by fruit which are hairy, woody capsules , tightly clustered in a cylindrical group. Melaleuca coccinea (habit)

Taxonomy and naming

''Melaleuca coccinea'' was first formally described in 1966 by

Alex George Alexander or Alex George may refer to: *Alex George (botanist) (born 1939), Australian botanist * Alexander L. George (1920–2006), American political scientist * Alexander George (philosopher), American philosopher *Alex George (motorcyclist), Sc ...

in '' The Western Australian Naturalist'' from a specimen "collected east of Karonie, on the Transcontinental railway; in sandy loam over granite." In 1990, two subspecies were described by Kirsten Cowley and given the names ''Melaleuca coccinea'' subsp. ''eximia'' and ''Melaleuca coccinea'' subsp. ''penicula'' but these were later raised to species status '' Melaleuca eximia'' and ''

Melaleuca penicula ''Melaleuca penicula'' is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south of Western Australia. It is a rare species only known from the Fitzgerald River National Park and resembles '' Melaleuca eximia'' with its spikes of ...

'' respectively by

Craven Craven may refer to: * Craven in the Domesday Book, an area of Yorkshire, England, larger area than the district ** Craven District, a local government district of North Yorkshire formed in 1974 Places * Craven, New South Wales, Australia, see ...

and

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 Australian ...

. 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 ...

(''coccinea'') is a Latin word meaning "deep red" or "crimson, referring to the colour of the flowers.

Distribution and habitat

Goldfields bottlebrush occurs in the

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...

Norseman The Norsemen (or Norse people) were a North Germanic ethnolinguistic group of the Early Middle Ages, during which they spoke the Old Norse language. The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages and is the pre ...

area, in the Coolgardie and Esperance biogeographical regions of Western Australia. It grows in sandy loam over granite near granite outcrops, on sandplains and river valleys.

Conservation status

This melaleuca is listed 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 ...

Use in horticulture

Goldfields bottlebrush has been described as "an outstanding shrub" that has grown well in Brisbane and Perth in full sun and average drainage conditions.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15371603 coccinea Myrtales of Australia Garden plants of Australia Plants described in 1966 Endemic flora of Western Australia