Melaleuca macronychia macronychia

Description

Melaleuca macronychia is a shrub in the myrtle family Myrtaceae, endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. Its large, red flower spikes and long flowering period contribute to its popularity as a garden plant. There are two subspecies, distinguished mainly by the shape of the leaves. Melaleuca macronychia is an open, erect, many-stemmed shrub usually growing to a height of 3–5 m (10–20 ft). Its leaves are arranged alternately, are 9–28 mm (0.4–1 in) long and 2.1–15.5 mm (0.08–0.6 in) wide oval to narrow elliptic in shape and taper to a point. The flowers are crimson and arranged in spikes on side branches, the spikes up to 60 mm (2 in) long and about 50 mm (2 in) in diameter. Each spike contains between 10 and 80 individual flowers. The petals are 3–6 mm (0.1–0.2 in) long and fall off as the flowers open. The stamens are arranged in five bundles around the flower, each bundle with 15 to 25 stamens. Flowers appear mostly from February to December varying somewhat with subspecies. The fruit are woody, roughly spherical capsules about 6 mm (0.2 in) in diameter, forming clusters along the branches.