''Melaleuca stenostachya'', commonly known as fibre-barked teatree or straight teatree 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 native to the Cape York Peninsula in northern

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 ...

, the

gulf country The Gulf Country is the region of woodland and savanna grassland surrounding the Gulf of Carpentaria in north western Queensland and eastern Northern Territory on the north coast of Australia. The region is also called the Gulf Savannah. It ...

of the Northern Territory and the south of Papua New Guinea. It is closely related to ''

Melaleuca dealbata ''Melaleuca dealbata'', commonly known as karnbor or blue paperbark, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is native to tropical areas in northern Australia, New Guinea and Indonesia. It is a medium to large leafy tree, growing in wet a ...

'' but can be distinguished from that species by the wide separation of the flowers in the inflorescence.

Description

''Melaleuca stenostachya'' is a large shrub or small tree which grows to a height of with white to dark grey, papery or fibrous bark. Its leaves are arranged alternately, long, wide, linear to elliptic in shape, covered with silky hairs, and tapering to a point. The leaves also have 5 to 7 longitudinal veins. The flowers are creamy-white in colour and are arranged in spikes at the ends of branches which continue to grow after flowering, and sometimes in the upper leaf axils. The spikes contain 6 to 12 groups of flowers in threes well spaced along the inflorescence and are up to in diameter. 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 arranged in five bundles around the flower, each bundle containing 6 to 10 stamens. Flowering occurs in most times of the year and is followed by fruit which are woody capsules, long. Melaleuca stenostachya 01

Taxonomy and naming

''Melaleuca stenostachya'' was first formally described in 1968 by Stanley Thatcher Blake in ''Contributions from the Queensland Herbarium''. 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 ...

(''stenostachya'') is from the Ancient Greek ''stenos'' meaning "narrow" or "tight" and ''stachys'' meaning "a spike" or "an ear of grain" referring to the narrow flower spike.

Distribution and habitat

This melaleuca occurs in the

Borroloola Borroloola ( local Aboriginal languages: ''Burrulula'') is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located on the McArthur River, about 50 km upstream from the Gulf of Carpentaria. Location Borroloola lies on the traditional c ...

district in the Northern Territory, Cape York Peninsula and southern parts of Papua New Guinea. It grows in seasonal swamps and along creeks in a variety of soils.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15372306 stenostachya Myrtales of Australia Flora of Queensland Plants described in 1968