''Melaleuca virens'', commonly known as lime 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 ...

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

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 name ''Callistemon viridiflorus''.) It is one of only two melaleucas endemic to Tasmania, the other being ''

Melaleuca pustulata ''Melaleuca pustulata'', commonly known as yellow paperbark, warty paperbark or Cranbrook paperbark is a plant in the myrtle Family (biology), family, Myrtaceae and is Endemism, endemic to Tasmania in Australia. It is an uncommon shrub, one of o ...

'' although another six also occur there. A small to medium shrub growing mostly in subalpine areas, it has hard, leathery, sharply pointed leaves and spikes of yellow or greenish flowers in early summer,

Description

''Melaleuca virens'' is a shrub growing to tall. Its leaves are arranged alternately and are long, wide, flat, elliptic to lance-shaped, sometimes slightly curved and taper to a sharp point. The side-veins are indistinct but the mid-vein and oil glands are visible on both surfaces. The flowers are a shade of yellow to greenish-yellow 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 and long with 20 to 80 individual flowers. The petals are long and fall off as the flower ages and there are 19-36 stamens in each flower, sometimes arranged in 5 groups. Flowering occurs from November to May and is followed by fruit which are woody capsules, long.

Taxonomy and naming

Lime bottlebrush was first described in 1825 by John Sims from a specimen raised by seed in

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

nursery. The description was published in

Curtis's Botanical Magazine ''The Botanical Magazine; or Flower-Garden Displayed'', is an illustrated publication which began in 1787. The longest running botanical magazine, it is widely referred to by the subsequent name ''Curtis's Botanical Magazine''. Each of the issue ...

. In 1826

Sweet Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketones, ...

changed the name to ''Callistemon viridiflorus'', publishing the change in Hortus Britannicus and in 2006, Lyndley Craven changed the name to ''Melaleuca virens''. That name has been accepted by the

World Checklist of Selected Plant Families The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (usually abbreviated to WCSP) was an "international collaborative programme that provides the latest peer reviewed and published opinions on the accepted scientific names and synonyms of selected p ...

but not by 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 ...

. 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 ...

(''virens'') 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 ''viridis'' meaning “green” referring to the flower colour of this species.

Distribution and habitat

''Melaleuca virens'' occurs throughout Tasmania but is more common in wet places in mountain or colder areas of the state. It grows in

swamps A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

, in

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...

and on buttongrass plains.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q20817879 virens Flora of Tasmania Plants described in 2006 Taxa named by Lyndley Craven