''Melaleuca virens'', commonly known as lime bottlebrush, 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 Tasmania 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 ...

. (Some Australian state herbaria continue to use the name ''Callistemon viridiflorus''.) It is one of only two melaleucas endemic to Tasmania, the other being ''

Melaleuca pustulata ''Melaleuca pustulata'', commonly known as yellow paperbark, warty paperbark or Cranbrook paperbark is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to Tasmania in Australia. It is an uncommon shrub, one of only two melaleucas that are ...

'' although another six also occur there. A small to medium shrub growing mostly in subalpine areas, it has hard, leathery, sharply pointed leaves and spikes of yellow or greenish flowers in early summer,

Description

''Melaleuca virens'' is a shrub growing to tall. Its leaves are arranged alternately and are long, wide, flat, elliptic to lance-shaped, sometimes slightly curved and taper to a sharp point. The side-veins are indistinct but the mid-vein and oil glands are visible on both surfaces. The flowers are a shade of yellow to greenish-yellow and are arranged in spikes on the ends of branches which continue to grow after flowering and also on the sides of the branches. The spikes are in diameter and long with 20 to 80 individual flowers. The petals are long and fall off as the flower ages and there are 19-36 stamens in each flower, sometimes arranged in 5 groups. Flowering occurs from November to May and is followed by fruit which are woody capsules, long.

Taxonomy and naming

Lime bottlebrush was first described in 1825 by John Sims from a specimen raised by seed in

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

nursery. The description was published in Curtis's Botanical Magazine. In 1826 Sweet changed the name to ''Callistemon viridiflorus'', publishing the change in Hortus Britannicus and in 2006, Lyndley Craven changed the name to ''Melaleuca virens''. That name has been accepted by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families but not by the Australian Plant Census. 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 ...

(''virens'') is from the Latin word ''viridis'' meaning “green” referring to the flower colour of this species.

Distribution and habitat

''Melaleuca virens'' occurs throughout Tasmania but is more common in wet places in mountain or colder areas of the state. It grows in

swamps A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

, in heath and on

buttongrass ''Gymnoschoenus sphaerocephalus'', commonly known as buttongrass, is a species of tussock-forming sedge from southeastern Australia. It forms part of a unique habitat in Tasmania. It was originally described as ''Chaetospora sphaerocephala'' by ...

plains.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q20817879 virens Flora of Tasmania Plants described in 2006 Taxa named by Lyndley Craven