''Melaleuca thyoides'', commonly known as salt lake honey-myrtle 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 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 an erect shrub with grey, papery or fibrous bark and very small, overlapping leaves on thin branchlets. It is a salt tolerant species often found on the edges of salt lakes.

Description

''Melaleuca thyoides'' is a shrub which grows to about high and wide. It has rough, dark grey bark and branchlets that are glabrous except when they first appear. The leaves are arranged alternately and are scale-like, long, wide, egg-shaped with the upper surface pressed against the stem and overlapping each other. The flowers are a shade of pink to purple, sometimes white or cream, arranged in heads on the ends of branches which continue to grow after flowering and sometimes in the upper leaf axils. The heads are up to in diameter and contain 4 to 12 groups of flowers in threes. The petals are long and fall off as the flowers mature. The stamens are arranged in five bundles around the flower, each bundle with 3 to 6 stamens. Flowers appear in spring or summer and the fruit which follow are woody, cup-shaped capsules, long in clusters up to in length along the stem.

Taxonomy and naming

''Melaleuca thyoides'' was first formally described in 1847 by Nikolai Turczaninow in "''Bulletin de la Société Impériale des Naturalistes de Moscou''". 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 ...

(''thyoides'') is in reference to the leaves resembling those of '' Thuja'', a genus of plant in the cypress family,

Cupressaceae Cupressaceae is a conifer family, the cypress family, with worldwide distribution. The family includes 27–30 genera (17 monotypic), which include the junipers and redwoods, with about 130–140 species in total. They are monoecious, subdio ...

Distribution and habitat

This melaleuca occurs in and between the Ongerup, Perenjori and Cape Arid districts in the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie, Esperance Plains, Geraldton Sandplains, Mallee,

Swan Coastal Plain The Swan Coastal Plain in Western Australia is the geographic feature which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. The coastal plain continues well beyond the boundaries of the Swan River and its tributaries, as a geol ...

and Yalgoo

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 clay or sandy soils near the edges of salt lakes and along river banks.

Conservation

''Melaleuca thyoides'' 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 ...

Uses in horticulture

''Melaleuca thyoides'' is a salt tolerant species and also moderately tolerant of water logging and drought.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15371912 thyoides Myrtales of Australia Plants described in 1847 Endemic flora of Western Australia Taxa named by Nikolai Turczaninow