''Melaleuca ryeae'' 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 sepa ...

of Western Australia. It is a small shrub, closely resembling ''

Melaleuca amydra ''Melaleuca amydra'' is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is similar to '' Melaleuca ryeae'' with its small, compact form, oval leaves and "pom-pom" heads of pink to purple flower h ...

'' with its small leaves and profuse heads of pink to purple flowers but ''M.amydra'' has narrower leaves () and does not have spherical clusters of fruits. Melaleuca ryeae fruit

Description

''Melaleuca ryeae'' is a small shrub sometimes growing to tall with woolly hairs on the young growth. Its leaves are arranged alternately, mostly long, wide, flat and egg-shaped with the narrower end at the base. The flowers are a shade of pink, arranged in heads on the ends of most of the branches which continue to grow after flowering and sometimes also in the upper leaf axils. The heads are up to in diameter and contain 8 to 15 groups of flowers in threes. The

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s are long and fall off as the flower matures. There are five bundles of

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 around the flower, each with 5 to 9 stamens. Flowering occurs in spring and is followed by fruit which are woody, cup-shaped capsules, long and usually in almost spherical clusters along the stem.

Taxonomy and naming

''Melaleuca ryeae'' was first formally described in 1999 by Lyndley Craven in '' Australian Systematic Botany'' from a specimen collected north of Badgingarra. 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 ...

(''ryeae'') honours Barbara Rye, a botanist and student of the family Myrtaceae.

Distribution and habitat

This melaleuca occurs in and between the

Arrino Arrino is a small town in the Mid West region of Western Australia. The town is located between Mingenew and Three Springs on the Midlands Road. The name of the town is Aboriginal in origin; it is the name of the local springs, thought to me ...

, Eneabba and Bullsbrook districts in the Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains and

Swan Coastal Plain The Swan Coastal Plain in Western Australia is the geographic feature which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. The coastal plain continues well beyond the boundaries of the Swan River and its tributaries, as a geol ...

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 swamps, in seasonally wet areas and on sandplains.

Conservation

''Melaleuca ryeae'' 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 ...

Use in horticulture

This species of melaleuca has been cultivated in temperate areas with winter rainfall, forming compact shrubs which are especially attractive in flower.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6811083 ryeae Myrtales of Australia Plants described in 1999 Rosids of Western Australia Endemic flora of Western Australia Taxa named by Lyndley Craven