''Melaleuca flammea'', commonly known as tapering-leaved bottlebrush, is a plant in the myrtle

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

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 ...

and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

and

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. (The

Australian Plant Census The Australian Plant Census (APC) provides an online interface to currently accepted, published, scientific names of the vascular flora of Australia, as one of the output interfaces of the national government Integrated Biodiversity Information Sys ...

and some Australian state

herbaria A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

continue to use the name ''Callistemon acuminatus''.) It is a shrub with broad, lance-shaped leaves which have wavy edges and taper gradually to a fine point. In spring it has typical bottlebrush flowers whose fiery colour gives the species its name.

Description

''Melaleuca flammea'' is a shrub growing to tall with hard, fibrous bark. Its leaves are arranged alternately and are long, wide, broad to narrow lance-shaped and gradually taper to a fine point. They are also distinguished by their broad v-shape, wavy margin with scattered fine teeth and 12 to 33 distinct lateral veins. The flowers are deep red to crimson and arranged in spikes on the ends of branches which continue to grow after flowering. The spikes are up to in diameter with 25 to 120 individual flowers. The petals are long and fall off as the flower ages. There are 20 to 32 bright red

stamen The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...

s in each flower. Flowering occurs mainly in spring but often at other times of the year and is followed by fruit which are woody capsules, long.

Taxonomy and naming

''Melaleuca flammea'' was first named in 2006 by

Lyndley Craven Lyndley Alan Craven (3 September 1945 – 11 July 2014) was a botanist who became the Principal Research Scientist of the Australian National Herbarium. Lyndley ("Lyn") Craven worked for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organ ...

in '' Novon''. It had first been formally described as ''Callistemon acuminatus'' by

Edwin Cheel Edwin Cheel (14 February 1872 – 19 September 1951) was an Australian botanist and collector. Before being appointed as a staff member of Centennial Park in 1897 he was a gardener in New South Wales and Queensland. Later he transferred to the R ...

in 1911 in '' Illustrations of New South Wales Plants'' from a specimen collected "''on slopes of rocky mountains, Crawford River, 7 miles'' (10km) ''from Bullahdelah.''" The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

(''flammea'') is from the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''flammeus'' meaning “fiery” or "fiery-red", referring to the fiery colour of the stamens. The Australian Plant Census accepts the name ''Callistemon acuminatus'' but it is regarded as a synonym of ''Melaleuca flammea'' by the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,10 ...

Distribution and habitat

''Melaleuca flammea'' occurs near

Nambour Nambour is a rural town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Nambour had a population of 12,145 people. Geography Nambour is north of the state capital ...

in Queensland and in coastal areas of New South Wales from Port Stephens to the Clarence River district. It usually grows in woodland or forest on dry, rocky hilltops

Conservation status

''Melaleuca flammea'', as ''Callistemon acuminatus'', is a classified in New South Wales as a " Rare or Threatened Australian Plant".

Use in horticulture

Although not common in cultivation, this species is hardy, frost and drought tolerant and its distinctive leaves and large, brightly coloured flowers give it horticultural potential.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q20721639 flammea Flora of Queensland Flora of New South Wales Plants described in 2006 Taxa named by Lyndley Craven