Melaleuca styphelioides Sm.
| Family: | MRYTACEAE |
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| Sub-Family: | Not available | ||||
| English Name: | Prickly Paperbark | ||||
| Synonym: | Leptospermum styphelioides (Sm.) Schauer | ||||
| Common Name: | Prickly Melaleuca | ||||
| Flowering & Fruiting Period: | Summer | ||||
| Distribution: | Native to eastern Australia | ||||
| Habitat: | Grown as ornamental tree | ||||
| Uses: | Ornamental | ||||
| Key Characteristics: | Prickly Paperbark is a small to medium sized tree up to 20 m tall, with a dense, rounded canopy and drooping branchlets. The spongy bark is white or light brown and peels of in large strips. The stalkless leaves are 7-15 mm long and 2.5-6 mm wide, ovate to broad-ovate. These are slightly twisted, have sharply-pointed tips, and are arranged alternately on the branchlets. Flowers appear in summer in cream or white cylindrical bottlebrush-like spikes which are 2-5 cm long and 1-2 cm 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 3-4 mm in diameter. | ||||