 | Class: | Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida) |
| Order: | Myrtles (Myrtales) |
| Family: | Myrtle (Myrtaceae) iNaturalist Observation |
| Species: | Mallee Honey-myrtle (Melaleuca acuminata ssp acuminata) |
| This Photo: | Insect (Scale?) Attack on Leaves |
Thank you Tony and Jenny Dominelli for confirming the id of this species for us
General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
Looks very similar to M. lanceolata. Up close they are quite different once you study them carefully:- Larger leaves (this is what we first noticed)
- The leaves are oposite. Each pair of leaves is roughly 90 deg (at right angles) to the previous pair. But overall the leaves have a slight spin to them when looking down the branch. The M. lanceolata leaves are adjacent but still offset to each other in a pattern. As such, you can see 4 leaves in a whorl (acuminata) rather than 5 (lanceolata)
- The leaves have dark spots under
- The leaves are flat, rather than nearly cylindrical & succulent. Both are pointy with a longitudinal curve
- Flowering in Spring instead of Autumn
- We think the fruit falls off on the M. acuminata leaving spikes. It makes it appear this species doesn't fruit when found 10 months after fruiting.
- The fruit, or seed pods, are more cylindrical
The flowers are randomly scattered, not in bottlebrushes
Buds are ~2mm wide, leaves ~2mm wide & ~6mm long
Similar Species: Dryland Tea-tree (Melaleuca lanceolata) |
| Copyright © 2014-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 30-Aug-2014 |
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| This species is classed as | LC (Least Concern) | in the Murray Mallee, SA, by DENR (Regional Species Status Assessments, July 2010) |
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