''Melaleuca punicea'' 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 Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Some of the characteristics of this species make it difficult to classify at the genus level. After it was originally described in 1984 as ''Melaleuca punicea'', it was transferred in 1986 to the genus ''

Regelia ''Regelia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae and is endemic (ecology), endemic to the Southwest_Australia, south-west of Western Australia. The genus is composed of five species of small leaved, evergreen shrubs which hav ...

'' (as ''Regelia punicea'') but it did not fit well in that genus either. In 1999 it was transferred again to a new genus ''Petraeomyrtus'' as ''P. punicea''. Subsequent molecular studies, especially of chloroplast DNA have suggested that it is best placed in ''Melaleuca'' along with others from genera including '' Beaufortia'', ''

Callistemon ''Callistemon'' is a genus of shrubs in the family Myrtaceae, first described as a genus in 1814. The entire genus is endemic to Australia but widely cultivated in many other regions and naturalised in scattered locations. Their status as a se ...

'' and ''

''. Later publications include this species as ''Melaleuca punicea''.

Description

''Melaleuca punicea'' is a spreading shrub growing to about tall. Its leaves are long and wide, with no apparent stalk, narrow triangular in shape, and almost crescent shape in cross section. The flowers are bright red or orange-red and are arranged in heads containing up to 15 individual flowers. The

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s are in five bundles around the flowers, each bundle containing 9 to 13 stamens. Flowering occurs during the

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The te ...

, including from January to November but mainly from June to August and is followed by the fruit, which are cup-shaped capsules, although not as woody as in most other melaleucas.

Taxonomy and naming

''Melaleuca punicea'' was first formally described in 1984 by Norman Byrnes in ''Austrobaileya''. It was then transferred to the genus ''

'' (''Regelia punicea'' (Byrnes) Barlow) then to ''Petraeomyrtus'' (''Petraeomyrtus punicea'' (Byrnes) Craven) and finally to the present ''Melaleuca punicea''. 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 ...

(''punicea'') is from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''puniceus'' meaning "purplish-red" referring to the colour of the stamens.

Distribution and habitat

''Melaleuca punicea'' occurs in

Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compan ...

on the sandstone escarpments of the

Kakadu National Park Kakadu National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia, southeast of Darwin. It is a World Heritage Site. Kakadu is also gazetted as a locality, covering the same area as the national park, with 313 people recorded liv ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q20721377 punicea Myrtales of Australia Flora of Western Australia Plants described in 1984 Taxa named by Norman Brice Byrnes