''Melaleuca paludicola'', commonly known as river 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 ...

to eastern

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 ...

. (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 names ''Callistemon sieberi'' or ''Callistemon paludosus''.) It is a shrub or small tree with flexible, often drooping branches, pinkish new growth and spikes of cream, pale yellow, or sometimes pink flowers in summer.

Description

''Melaleuca paludicola'' is a shrub or tree growing to tall, with fibrous bark, or hard, fissured bark on older plants. Its leaves are arranged alternately and are long, wide, flat, linear to narrow lance-shaped and have a small point at the end. There is a distinct mid-vein and 11–18 indistinct side veins. The flowers are a shade of cream to yellow, occasionally pink 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 with 10 to 40 individual flowers. The petals are long and fall off as the flower ages and there are 48–67 stamens in each flower. Flowering occurs mainly from October to January and is followed by fruit which are woody, cup-shaped capsules, long. Melaleuca paludicola habit

Taxonomy and naming

''Melaleuca paludicola'' was 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 when he transferred ''Callistemon sieberi'' to the present

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

. ''Callistemon sieberi'' was first formally described by botanist

Augustin Pyramus de Candolle Augustin Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (, , ; 4 February 17789 September 1841) was a Swiss people, Swiss botany, botanist. René Louiche Desfontaines launched de Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at a herbarium. Within a couple ...

in 1828 in '' Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis''. 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 ...

(''paludicola'') 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 ...

word ''palus'' meaning “swamp”, "marsh", "bog" or "fen" and the suffix ''-cola'' meaning “inhabitant”. An earlier, alternative name (

taxonomic synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The Botanical nomenclature, botanical and Zoological nomenclature, zoological codes of nomencl ...

) for the species was ''Callistemon paludosus'' and the present name was chosen to link with the earlier one. ''Callistemon paludosus'' is regarded as a synonym of ''Melaleuca paludicola'' 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 paludicola'' occurs from

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined wit ...

in the far south east of

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 ...

, through

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 ...

as far inland as the eastern part of the North West Plains to the eastern half of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

. There is a disjunct population in the

Mount Lofty Ranges The Mount Lofty Ranges are a range of mountains in the Australian state of South Australia which for a small part of its length borders the east of Adelaide. The part of the range in the vicinity of Adelaide is called the Adelaide Hills and d ...

and

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

districts of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. It grows in and near rivers, in dry, rocky riverbeds and in flood channels subject to periodic inundation.

Use in horticulture

''Melaleuca paludicola'' is sometimes cultivated as ''Callistemon sieberi''. An alpine form is a smaller, denser, rounded shrub suitable as a more formal plant.

Gallery

Image:Callistemon sieberi.jpg, In the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (RBGV) are botanical garden, botanic gardens across two sites–Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, Melbourne and Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne, Cranbourne. Melbourne Gardens was founded in 1846 when land w ...

as ''Callistemon sieberi'' Image:Melaleuca paludicola leaves and fruit.jpg, Leaves and fruit Image:Melaleuca paludicola leaves and flowers.jpg, Leaves and flowers

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q13897352 paludicola Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Flora of South Australia Flora of Victoria (state) Plants described in 2006 Taxa named by Lyndley Craven