Melaleuca styphelioides, known as the Prickly-leaved paperbark or Prickly Paperbark, is a plant native to eastern Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

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Description

It is a small to medium sized tree up to 20 metres high with a dense, rounded canopy and drooping branchlets. The spongy bark is white or light brown and peels of in large strips.

The sessile

Sessility (botany)

In botany, sessility is a characteristic of plants whose flowers or leaves are borne directly from the stem or peduncle, and thus lack a petiole or pedicel...

 leaves are 7 to 15 mm long and 2.5 to 6 mm wide. 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" spikes which are 2 to 5 cm long and 1 to 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 to 4 mm in diameter

Taxonomy

The species was first formerly described in 1797 by botanist James Edward Smith

James Edward Smith

Sir James Edward Smith was an English botanist and founder of the Linnean Society.Smith was born in Norwich in 1759, the son of a wealthy wool merchant. He displayed a precocious interest in the natural world...

 in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London from plant material collected by David Burton near Port Jackson

Port Jackson

Port Jackson, containing Sydney Harbour, is the natural harbour of Sydney, Australia. It is known for its beauty, and in particular, as the location of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge...

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Distribution and habitat

The species occurs along stream banks or other moist situations, mostly in coastal areas from Nowra in New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 and northwards in to Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

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Cultivation

The species thrives in a variety of situations ranging from swampy to
hot and dry. It is used as a street tree in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, with good examples in Campsie

Campsie, New South Wales

Campsie is a suburb in south-western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Campsie is located 13 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, on the southern bank of the Cooks River. Campsie is the commercial and administrative centre of the City of...

, an inner southwestern suburb.

Due to its deep-rooting characteristics, lawn can be grown under its canopy.