''Melaleuca marginata'' 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 is distinguished by its prickly leaves and its flowers occurring in long sections of the branches. From 1922 to 2011 was known as ''Melaleuca coronicarpa''.

Description

''Melaleuca marginata'' is a prickly shrub, growing to a height of about . The leaves are arranged alternately along the stem, more or less oval in shape, long and wide, crescent-shaped in cross section and tapering to a pointed, sharp end. The white flowers are in clusters of up to 25 flowers along the sides of the branches, each cluster up to in diameter. The style is long. The petals are long and fall off as the flower ages. The stamens are arranged in five bundles around the flower, each bundle containing between 10 and 22 stamens. Flowering occurs mainly in early spring and is followed by fruit which are woody capsules, with the sepals remaining as five teeth on each cup-shaped fruit.

Taxonomy and naming

''Melaleuca coronicarpa'' was described in 1922 by

Desmond Herbert Desmond Andrew Herbert (17 June 1898 – 8 September 1976) was an Australian botanist. The son of a fruit-grower, Herbert was born in Diamond Creek, Victoria in 1898; was educated at Malvern State School and the Melbourne Church of England Gr ...

however, a specimen formally described in 1845 by Otto Wilhelm Sonder as ''Astroloma marginatum'' was recognised in 2011 as the same species as the one named by Herbert. The type specimen described by Herbert was also found to be within the range of ''Melaleuca coronicarpa''. Since the Sonder description had priority, it was renamed by Michael Hislop, Brendan Lepschi and Lyndley Craven. The name for this species is therefore now ''Melaleuca marginata''. 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 ...

(''marginata'') is a Latin word meaning "border" or "margin" and refers to the distinctive leaf margin.

Distribution and habitat

''Melaleuca marginata'' occurs from the Chapman Valley district south to the Ongerup district and east toward the Koorda and

Grass Patch Grass Patch is a small town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, located 79 km north of Esperance on the Coolgardie-Esperance Highway. The town was named after a nearby farm of the same name that had been settled arou ...

districts in the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie, Esperance Plains, Geraldton Sandplains, 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 sand including lateritic sand, loam and clay, on sandy ridges, eroded

laterite Laterite is both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by ...

and undulating plains.

Conservation

''Melaleuca marginata'' 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=Q19875509 marginata Myrtales of Australia Plants described in 1845 Endemic flora of Western Australia