''Melaleuca haplantha'' 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 was first described as a new species in 1988 when Bryan Barlow undertook a review of '' Melaleuca cuticularis'' and found it to include 13 separate species. Melaleuca haplantha 02

Description

''Melaleuca haplantha'' is a spreading shrub with papery bark to about tall. Its leaves are arranged in alternate 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 ...

), each leaf long and wide, linear or very narrow elliptic in shape and tapering to a point. The flowers are white to creamy-yellow, in heads at or near the ends of the branches which often continue to grow after flowering and are about in diameter. There is usually only one flower in the head but sometimes up to three flowers. The stamens are arranged in five bundles around each flower with 17 to 24 stamens per bundle. Flowering occurs during spring and is followed by fruit which are woody capsules long.

Taxonomy and naming

''Melaleuca haplantha'' was first formally described in 1988 by Bryan Barlow in Australian Systematic Botany as a new species. 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 ...

(''haplantha'') is derived from Ancient Greek words meaning "single" and "flower", referring to the single-flowered inflorescence.

Distribution and habitat

This melaleuca occurs between the

New Norcia New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

, Mukinbudin,

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 Hopetoun districts in the Avon Wheatbelt, 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 in clay and gravelly loam in winter-wet soil in

kwongan Kwongan is plant community found in south-western Western Australia. The name is a Bibbelmun (Noongar) Aboriginal term of wide geographical use defined by Beard (1976) as Kwongan has replaced other terms applied by European botanists such as ...

or woodland.

Conservation status

''Melaleuca haplantha'' 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=Q15370028 haplantha Myrtales of Australia Plants described in 1988 Endemic flora of Western Australia