Melaleuca styphelioides Sm.

prickly paperbark, prickly-leaved paperbark, prickly-leaved tea-tree

Australia: indigenous to coastal areas of Queensland and New South Wales and a few sites in Victoria, typically in swampy areas.

In New Zealand occasionally planted in parks and gardens as an ornamental tree. No records of naturalisation in New Zealand.

Lowland North Island areas of New Zealand.

• Shrub to 10 m or more tall, bark papery.
• Leaves alternate along the stem, broadly ovate, bright green, often twisted and concave above, the tip tapered to a sharp point; leaf stalks absent, aromatic when rubbed.
• White flowers in spikes to 20 mm long, 25 mm wide.
• Stamens 12–26 per bundle, to 12 mm long, filaments in each bundle fused basally for ± 5 mm, free part of filaments 4–6 mm long.
• Capsules collectively in a dense cylindrical spike, capsules ovate, to 3.5 mm long and 4 mm wide, with a wavy rim produced by persistent remains of sepals.
• Flowers late spring to summer.

Shrub or tree 3–10 m tall, occasionally 20 m tall, branches may be slightly weeping.

Bark papery or hard, fissured, white to black or grey. Branchlets hairy.

Leaves alternate along the stem, stalkless, broadly ovate, 4–25 mm long, 2–7 mm wide, bright green, often twisted or concave above, faintly 15–30-veined, aromatic when rubbed, oil glands sometimes distinct; margins hairy; tip tapered to a sharp point; leaf stalks absent.

Flowers in few- to many-flowered, dense spikes 10–20 mm long, ± 25 mm wide, axis hairy, growing on into a leafy shoot, flowers usually in threes within each leaf-like bract, white. Petals 5, more-or-less circular, 1–2 mm long. Stamens 12–26 per bundle, ± 7–12 mm long, filaments in each bundle fused basally for 3–5 mm, free part of filaments ± 4–6 mm long. Hypanthium hairy, to 2.6 mm long. Main flowering period: late spring to summer.

Capsules collectively in a dense cylindrical spike, capsules ovate, 2–3.5 mm long, 2–4 mm wide, with a wavy rim produced by persistent remains of sepals.

The long, bright green, broad-based leaves (to 25 mm long), that are often slightly dished and drawn out to a sharp point together with short spikes of white flowers are distinctive among Melaleuca species. M. squarrosa, cultivated occasionally in parks and gardens in lowland areas of the North Island, also has papery bark and bright green, broad-based leaves with pointed tips, and white flowers, but its leaves are shorter, to only 15 mm long, and more distinctively, are in two opposite rows, whereas those of M. styphelioides are alternate along the stem. M. squarrosa stamens may be slightly longer than those of M. styphelioides, at 6–8 mm, but are in bundles of 6–12, whereas M. styphelioides stamens are ± 6 mm long, in bundles of 12–26.

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