''Melaleuca tortifolia'' 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 a small area on the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales in

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 ...

. It has egg-shaped, twisted leaves and heads, or short spikes of white or creamy-white flowers in December. It is classified as a threatened species.

Description

''Melaleuca tortifolia'' is a shrub growing to about tall. Its leaves are arranged in more or less opposite pairs and are long, wide, egg-shaped with the end tapering to a point. The leaves are flat but usually twisted, with 3 to 5 longitudinal veins. The flowers are white, pale cream or pink in colour and are arranged in heads or short spikes on the ends of branches that continue to grow after flowering. The heads contain 2 to 10 groups of flowers in threes and are up to in diameter but sometimes the flowers may be in small groups of individual flowers. The petals are long and fall off as the flower ages. 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 10 to 16 stamens. Flowering usually occurs in December and is followed by the fruit which are woody, almost spherical capsules in diameter. Melaleuca tortifolia habit

Taxonomy and naming

''Melaleuca tortifolia'' was first formally described in 1984 by Norman Byrnes in ''Austrobaileya''. 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 ...

(''tortifolia'') is from the Latin ''tortus'' meaning "twist" or "turn" and ''folium'' meaning "a leaf" referring to the often twisted leaves.

Distribution and habitat

''Melaleuca tortifolia'' is only known from

Barren Mountain Barren Mountain is a mountain standing approximately , situated as one of the highest points on the Dorrigo Plateau, that is part of the Great Dividing Range, located in the Northern Tablelands and New England regions of New South Wales, Aus ...

near

Ebor Ebor is the abbreviation of the Latin '' Eboracum'', the early name of York in Britain. It may also mean: * Ebor, the legal alias of the Archbishops of York * Ebor, Manitoba, a community in Canada * Ebor, New South Wales, a village in Australia ...

where it grows in heath in wet places.

Conservation

''Melaleuca tortifolia'' is a threatened species listed as 2Rc-t in the ROTAP classification, meaning that it is rare but without any identifiable threat, and all the known individual plants are in a conservation reserve.

Gallery

Image:Melaleuca tortifolia (1).jpg, Flower detail Image:Melaleuca tortifolia (2).jpg, Leaf arrangement

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15372215 tortifolia Myrtales of Australia Flora of Western Australia Plants described in 1984 Taxa named by Norman Brice Byrnes