Melaleuca armillaris (Sol. ex Gaertn.) Sm.

bracelet honey-myrtle, cream paperbark, giant honey-myrtle

South-eastern Australia: eastern New South Wales, eastern Victoria and Tasmania.

In New Zealand planted in parks and gardens, or for shelter; occasionally naturalised from nearby planted specimens from Auckland north, and naturalising into gumland scrub in the Far North.

Occasional in the North Island of New Zealand, particularly north of Auckland.

• Shrub to ± 6 m tall with papery or hard, fissured or occasionally corky bark.
• Leaves narrow-linear with a hooked tip, alternate on branchlet, gland-dotted below, aromatic.
• Flowers in a dense cylindrical spike, stamens white or occasionally pinkish mauve.
• Capsules collectively in a dense cylindrical spike, each capsule 4–5 mm wide.
• Flowers spring to summer.

Shrub or small tree to ± 6 m tall, branches may be slightly weeping.

Main stems with bark that is described as papery or rough, hard or corky, often with shallow fissures, in older trees. Young stems initially slightly hairy, becoming hairless.

Leaves alternate, narrow-linear, ± 12–25 mm long, ± 1 mm wide, dark green, concave above, gland-dotted below, aromatic when rubbed, hairless; margins entire, tips with a sharp hook; leaf stalks 1–2 mm long.

Flowers in a dense cylindrical spike, 30–70 mm long, 20–28 mm wide, arising as a side-branch from which shoots continue to grow, spike axis hairless to hairy. Petals 5, 2–3 mm long. Stamens much longer, in bundles of 8–18, stamen filament (stalk) white to cream or rarely pinkish-mauve, filaments in each bundle fused basally for 5–6 mm, free part of filaments ± 3–7 mm long. Main flowering period: summer.

Capsules woody, collectively in a dense spike, individual capsules short cylindrical, ± 4–5 mm wide, sepals mostly persistent, pointed to wavy on the capsule rim.

Melaleuca armillaris usually has longer leaves (10–30 mm) than M. ericifolia, M. decora, M. incana, M. squarrosa and M. bracteata, the other larger-growing white-flowered Melaleuca species occasionally grown in New Zealand, apart from M. linariifolia and M. alternifolia that have distinctive flowers. Of that group, only M. armillaris and M. decora have papery bark, narrow leaves and flower spikes to more than 40 mm long (M. decora to ± 50 mm long and 17 mm wide, and M. armillaris to 70 mm long and 20–28 mm wide). Both species have alternate leaves (although M. armillaris is also sometimes described as opposite-leaved), but the hooked tip of M. armillaris is distinctive. Stamens of M. armillaris are 7–12 mm long in bundles of 10–16, whereas M. decora has stamens ± 7 mm long in bundles of 20–40. M. armillaris is known to be much more widespread that M. decora and is naturalised in the north.

Two subspecies are recorded in Australia: Melaleuca armillaris subsp. akineta, restricted to ridges and granite outcrops in a limited area of South Australia, and M. armillaris subsp. armillaris, which has a wider natural distribution, is cultivated as a fast-growing windbreak or screening plant, and sometimes naturalises in Australia and northern New Zealand. Melaleuca armillaris subsp. akineta has shorter stamens and fewer flowers per spike than M. armillaris subsp. armillaris. No specimens of M. armillaris subsp. akineta have been recorded in New Zealand, and it is most probable that all plants in New Zealand, presumably originally brought in for horticultural purposes, are M. armillaris subsp. armillaris.

Melaleuca is a genus of about 230 species, centred in Australia but extending to Asia, Malesia, and New Caledonia. We follow the Australian Plant Census (APC) by recognising Melaleuca and Callistemon as separate genera.

• Flora of New Zealand Online
• GBIF
• iNaturalist NZ
• NZPCN
• PlantNET: New South Wales Flora Online
• Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
• VicFlora: Flora of Victoria
• Weeds of Australia: Biosecurity Queensland