''Melaleuca laxiflora'', commonly known as narrow-leaved paperbark, is a woody, spreading shrub 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 the

south-west The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

of Western Australia. It is distinguished by its loosely arranged, mostly lateral pink flower spikes and its smooth, fleshy, oil-dotted leaves. It is often cultivated because of its hardiness and attractive flowers.

Description

''Melaleuca laxiflora'' is a rounded, open shrub growing to a height and width of with rough, fibrous bark. Its leaves are arranged alternately along the branches, glabrous, narrow oval to tear-drop shaped, long, wide and have prominent oil glands. The flowers are mauve, pink or purple, sometimes white, in heads of 6 to 20 individual flowers along the sides of the branches. The heads are long and about in diameter. The stamens are arranged in five bundles around the flower, each bundle with 12 to 18 stamens. Flowers appear mostly from October to December and the fruit which follow are in loose clusters, each capsule cylindrical, long and in diameter, with the sepals remaining as teeth around the edge.

Taxonomy and naming

''Melaleuca laxiflora'' was first formally described in 1852 by Nikolai Turczaninow in "''Bulletin de la classe physico-mathematique de l'Academie Imperiale des sciences de Saint-Petersburg''". 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 ...

(''laxiflora'') is from the Latin words ''laxus'', meaning "loose" or ''slack'' and ''-florus'' meaning "flowered" referring to the relatively wide separation between individual flowers in each spike.

Distribution and habitat

This melaleuca occurs from the Mollerin district, south and east to the Ongerup and

Norseman The Norsemen (or Norse people) were a North Germanic ethnolinguistic group of the Early Middle Ages, during which they spoke the Old Norse language. The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages and is the pre ...

districts in the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie and Mallee

biogeographic regions A biogeographic realm or ecozone is the broadest biogeographic division of Earth's land surface, based on distributional patterns of terrestrial organisms. They are subdivided into bioregions, which are further subdivided into ecoregions. De ...

. It grows in sandy or clayey soils, often over granite, on flats and roadsides.

Conservation status

''Melaleuca laxiflora'' is listed as "not threatened" by the

Government of Western Australia The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of Western Australia. It is also commonly referred to as the WA Government o ...

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and e ...

Use in horticulture

This species has frequently been cultivated and is a hardy plant in a well-drained, sunny position. It is suited to semi-dry and temperate climates rather than humid areas.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15370674 laxiflora Myrtales of Australia Plants described in 1852 Endemic flora of Western Australia Taxa named by Nikolai Turczaninow