''Melaleuca cucullata'' is a large 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 to the

south-west The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

of Western Australia. Its species name alludes to the shape of the leaves which resemble miniature academics' hoods.

Description

''Melaleuca cucullata'' is dense shrub with arching branches. It grows to a height of about high. Its leaves are sometimes 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 ...

) or sometimes alternately along the stem. They are long and wide and thick, fleshy and dished. This species flowers profusely with heads of flowers at the ends of branches which continue to grow after flowering. The heads contain between 4 and 10 groups of flowers in threes and are about long and in diameter. The petals are long and fall off as the flower opens. The stamens are pure white, arranged in bundles of five around the flower with 5 to 9 stamens per bundle. The main flowering season is spring and the fruit which follow are woody capsules forming a tight oval shape.

Taxonomy and naming

This species was first formally described in 1852 by the Russian botanist 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 ...

(''cucullata'') is from the Latin ''cucullus'' meaning "hood", referring to the leaves which resemble little hoods.

Distribution and habitat

This melaleuca occurs between the

Lake Grace A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

Stirling Range The Stirling Range or Koikyennuruff is a range of mountains and hills in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, south-east of Perth. It is over wide from west to east, stretching from the highway between Mount Barker and Cranb ...

and

Israelite Bay Israelite Bay is a bay and locality on the south coast of Western Australia. Situated in the Shire of Esperance local government area, it lies east of Esperance and the Cape Arid National Park, within the Nuytsland Nature Reserve and the Grea ...

districts in the Coolgardie, Esperance Plains 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 on clay soils and loam on hillsides and flats.

Conservation status

''Melaleuca cucullata'' 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 e ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15370215 cucullata Myrtales of Australia Rosids of Western Australia Plants described in 1852 Endemic flora of Western Australia Taxa named by Nikolai Turczaninow