Prickly-leaf teatree

Description

Melaleuca styphelioides, known as the prickly-leaved paperbark or prickly paperbark, is a plant native to eastern Australia. It is a tree with spongy bark, prickly leaves and spikes of creamy-white flowers.It is a small to medium-sized tree up to 20 m (70 ft) high with a dense, rounded canopy and drooping branchlets.The spongy bark is white or light brown and peels off in large strips. The leaves are sessile, 7–15 mm (0.3–0.6 in) long and 2.5–6 mm (0.1–0.2 in) wide. They are slightly twisted, have sharply-pointed tips, are arranged alternately on the branchlets and have between 15 and 30 veins. Flowers appear in summer in cream or white cylindrical "bottlebrush" spikes which are 2 to 5 cm (0.8 to 2 in) long and 1 to 2 cm (0.4 to 0.8 in) in diameter. Often new growth appears at the end of the spikes. Following flowering, grey-brown, woody capsules appear in clusters along the branchlets. These are ovoid, stalkless and 3 to 4 mm (0.1 to 0.2 in) in diameter. The species occurs along stream banks or other moist situations, mostly in coastal areas from Nowra in New South Wales and northwards in to Queensland.