Erect broom-like shrub to 3 m high; bark papery on old stems. Leaves sessile or subsessile, terete, rarely slightly flattened, c. 1.5–5.0 cm long, c. 1 mm wide, tip narrowly acute, recurved, glands usually present. Inflorescence a dense, shortly pedunculate, globoid or obloid head, c. 1–2 cm long; axis hairy, growing on into a leafy shoot. Flowers in triads; stamens 4–8 per bundle, white to yellow, claw c. 2 mm long, free part of filaments c. 3–4 mm long. Capsules c. 3 mm wide, aggregated into dense globular clusters. Flowers mostly in spring.
LoM, MuM, Wim, VRiv, GipP, Gold, GGr. WA, SA, Qld, NSW (native and naturalised). Locally common on shallow, sandy soils overlying laterites and shales on ridges within dunefields of the north-west mallee, and through the Bendigo Whipstick and other mallee outliers in north-central Victoria. Sparingly established at Black Rock.
Source:
Spencer, R.D. (1996). Melaleuca. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 1027–1034. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
