''Melaleuca ochroma'' 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 very similar to '' Melaleuca subfalcata'', varying mainly in the length of its stamens and styles. Like ''M. subfalcata'', it has pink to mauve flowers and leaves that are very hairy when young but become glabrous when mature.

Description

''Melaleuca ochroma'' is a shrub growing to about tall with hard, fibrous bark. Its leaves are narrow oval shaped and covered with soft hairs when young but become glabrous with age and eventually linear in shape, slightly dished and with a sharp point on the end. Mature leaves are arranged alternately on the stem and are long and about wide. The flowers are pink at first but fade to pale mauve, arranged on spikes wide in the axils of the leaves, each spike with 17 to 35 individual flowers. The petals are long and fall off as the flower matures. The stamens are arranged in five bundles around the flower, each bundle containing 13 to 24 stamens. The stamens are long and the styles are long. (In ''Melaleuca subfalcata'', the stamens and styles are longer.) Flowering occurs in late spring and is followed by fruit which are woody cup-shaped capsule long with a fairly smooth rim.

Taxonomy and naming

''Melaleuca ochroma'' was first described as a new species in 2000 by

Brendan Lepschi Brendan John Lepschi (born 1969) is an Australian botanist, whose interests include the taxonomy of the genus ''Melaleuca'', the families Santalaceae and Goodeniaceae and how exotic species become naturalised. He is the curator of the Australi ...

. 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 ...

(''ochroma'') is from the Greek ''ochroma'' meaning "pallor" in reference to the pale colour of the flowers.

Distribution and habitat

''Melaleuca ochroma'' occurs in the Mount Holland - Hyden district in the Coolgardie 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 ...

Conservation

''Melaleuca ochroma'' is listed as " Priority Three"

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 ...

meaning that it is only known from a few locations but is not under imminent threat.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17595976 ochroma Myrtales of Australia Plants described in 2000 Endemic flora of Western Australia