''Melaleuca dissitiflora'', commonly known as creek tea–tree, 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

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 occurs in the drier parts of Queensland, the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia. It grows in places like sandy creek beds and rocky gorges but it may have potential as a more productive source of "tea tree" oil than the usual '' Melaleuca alternifolia''. It is closely related and very similar to ''

Melaleuca linophylla ''Melaleuca linophylla'' is a plant in the myrtle family Myrtaceae and is native to the north-west of Western Australia. It is a bushy shrub with narrow leaves and spikes of cream-coloured flowers in spring. It is distinguished by its fruits whi ...

'' with its papery bark, narrow leaves and loose spikes of creamy-white flowers but its flowers are larger, the stamens are longer and there are more stamens per bundle than in that species.

Description

''Melaleuca dissitiflora'' is usually a tall, bushy shrub which grows to high, wide and has grey papery bark. Its leaves are arranged alternately, long, wide, glabrous except when very young, linear to elliptic in shape and tapering to a point. The flowers are white to cream-coloured and are arranged in spikes on the ends of branches which continue to grow after flowering. The spikes are up to in diameter, long and contain between 10 and 30 individual flowers. The petals are arranged in five bundles around the flower with 15 to 35 stamens per bundle. The flowering season is variable but often occurs in winter. The fruit that follow are woody capsules, long arranged in roughly spherical clusters around the stem.

Taxonomy and naming

''Melaleuca dissitiflora'' was first formally described in 1863 by

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

in '' Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae'' from a specimen collected by the explorer

John McDouall Stuart John McDouall Stuart (7 September 18155 June 1866), often referred to as simply "McDouall Stuart", was a Scottish explorer and one of the most accomplished of all Australia's inland explorers. Stuart led the first successful expedition to tra ...

. 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 ...

(''dissitiflora'') is from the Latin ''dissitus'', meaning "apart" or "remote" and ''flos'' meaning "flower", referring to the flowers being in loose clusters in the inflorescence.

Distribution and habitat

''Melaleuca dissitiflora'' is found in the drier parts of inland Australia such as Flinders Ranges in South Australia. It is also found in the Northern Territory and western Queensland and there is a disjunct population in the

Rawlinson Range Rawlinson Range is a mountain range in north-eastern Papua New Guinea. The range was named after Sir Henry Rawlinson Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, 1st Baronet, KLS (5 April 1810 – 5 March 1895) was a British East India Company army ...

in Western Australia near its border with the Northern Territory. It grows in rocky places, in ephemeral watercourses and alluvium.

Uses

Horticulture

''Melaleuca dissitiflora'' has been cultivated in a few places, including where rainfall is as little as a year. It is reportedly a fast-growing, frost resistant species

Essential oils

This species' leaves yield significant amounts of essential oils such as 1,8-cineole ( Eucalyptol). Experiments trees of this species in the dry environment near Alice Springs revealed that many produced an essential oil with levels of terpinen-4-ol and p-cymene higher than that found in commercial tea tree oil derived mainly from ''Melaleuca alternifolia''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6811014 Medicinal plants dissitiflora Trees of Australia Myrtales of Australia Crops originating from Australia Flora of the Northern Territory Flora of Queensland Flora of South Australia Plants described in 1863 Rosids of Western Australia Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller