''Melaleuca lateralis'' 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 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 is a showy shrub, well suited to horticulture, distinguished by its very small leaves and small clusters of pink flowers along the older stems. Melaleuca lateralis fruit

Description

''Melaleuca lateralis'' is a bushy shrub growing to about tall. Except on the youngest growth, the leaves and branches are glabrous. The leaves are arranged alternately around the stem and are long and wide, linear to narrow oval in shape, roughly semi-circular in cross section and usually have a blunt end. This species flowers profusely with deep pink flowers in clusters along the stems. The clusters contain between 4 and 15 individual flowers and are up to in diameter. The petals are long and fall off soon after the flower opens. The stamens are arranged in five bundles around the flower, each bundle containing 4 to 12 stamens. Flowering occurs in early spring and is followed by the fruit which are woody capsules long in loose clusters along the stem.

Taxonomy and naming

This species was first described in 1852 by the Russian botanist Nikolai Turczaninow in ''Bulletin de la classe physico-mathématique de l'Académie Impériale des sciences de Saint-Petersburg''. 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 ...

(''lateralis'') is "in reference to the inflorescence being inserted on the branchlets and branches below the leaves".

Distribution and habitat

''Melaleuca lateralis'' occurs in and between 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 ...

and

Lake King Lake King is a town in the eastern Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, from Perth along State Route 40 between Kelmscott and Ravensthorpe. As of 2016, the town had a population of 95. The 2011 census recorded both the population of the tow ...

districts in the Esperance Plains, Jarrah Forest 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 sandy gravel on floodplains.

Conservation status

''Melaleuca lateralis'' 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=Q15370434 lateralis Myrtales of Australia Rosids of Western Australia Plants described in 1852 Endemic flora of Western Australia Taxa named by Nikolai Turczaninow