''Melaleuca depauperata'' 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 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. It has small, fleshy leaves and purple to pink flowers on short stalks along the branches.

Description

''Melaleuca depauperata'' is dense, bushy, spreading shrub growing to about high and wide with fibrous bark. Its leaves are arranged alternately around the stem and are long and wide, flat but rather fleshy and oval shaped, usually with a blunt end but sometimes with a sharp point. The flowers are mauve, pink or violet in spikes of between 4 and 17 individual flowers which fade to white as they age. The spikes are in the leaf axils, have a short stalk and are about in diameter. Flowering occurs from September to January but mainly between October and November. The fruit are almost spherical woody capsules long in loose clusters.

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 ...

(''depauperata'') is from the Latin ''depauperatus'', possibly referring to the type specimen having few flowers.

Distribution and habitat

''Melaleuca depauperata'' occurs inland from the

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 ...

as far as Wagin and eastwards as far as

Muntadgin Muntadgin is a townsite off the Great Eastern Highway on Brissenden Road, situated between the towns of Bruce Rock and Southern Cross in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. At the 2016 census, Muntadgin had a population of 51. Origin ...

and the Peak Charles National Park in the Avon Wheatbelt, 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 sandy and clayey soils on flats and roadsides.

Conservation status

''Melaleuca depauperata'' 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=Q15371263 depauperata Myrtales of Australia Rosids of Western Australia Plants described in 1852 Endemic flora of Western Australia Taxa named by Nikolai Turczaninow