Melaleuca ferruginea Craven & Cowie, 2013

Craven, L. A. & Cowie, I. D., 2013, Taxonomic notes on the broad-leaved paperbarks (Myrtaceae, Melaleuca), including the description of one new species from northern Australia and a key to all taxa, Blumea 57 (3), pp. 207-209 : 207-208

1. Melaleuca ferruginea Craven & Cowie , sp. nov.

Differt a M. leucadendra ( L.) L. ramulis foliisque trichomatibus pubescentibus lanuginulosisque, hypanthio longiore (3–4 mm longo), et lobis calycis latissime triangularibus. — Typus: Cowie 7335 (holo CANB; iso AD, BRI, DNA, K, MEL, NSW, NY, PERTH, QRS), in dune swale, c. 22 km S of Cape Barrow, 13°50'45"S, 135°59'53"E, Northern Territory, Australia, 16 Oct. 1996 .

Tree to 16 m tall; old outer bark white to brown, new bark reddish, soft, papery. Branchlets glabrescent, with an outer layer of pubescent hairs and a very dense understorey of lanuginulose hairs. Leaves alternate, distinctly dorsiventral, 70–160 mm long, 12– 28 mm wide, 3.8 – 8.8 times as long as wide;

1 Australian National Herbarium, CSIRO Plant Industry, GPO Box 1600, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; corresponding author e-mail: [e-mail].

2 Northern Territory Herbarium,PO Box 496,Palmerston, NT 0831, Australia.

petiole 5 –12 mm long; blade glabrescent, the indumentum as on the branchlets but pubescent hairs less frequent, narrowly elliptic, subfalcate or falcate, in transverse section transversely linear, the base narrowly cuneate or cuneate, the apex acute, narrowly acuminate or sometimes obtuse; the apex recurved, the venation of 5 –7 longitudinal veins; oil glands obscure, scattered. Inflorescence a spike of triads, usually in the axils of distal leaves, occasionally several occurring at a branchlet apex (with some in the axils of the distal leaves and the others apparently terminal), sometimes the inflorescences are below the leaves, the rachis indumentum with pubescent and lanuginulose hairs, (17–) 20 – 30 mm wide, with 10–15 triads. Hypanthium glabrescent, or remaining hairy, the indumentum with pubescent and lanuginulose (sometimes only pubescent hairs present), broadly vase-shaped or cup-shaped, 3 – 4 mm long, 3 – 4 mm wide. Calyx lobes 5, connate at the base, abaxially hairy, not costate, herbaceous in the proximal-central zone and scarious in a broad marginal band, the band c. 0.2 mm wide, very broadly triangular, 0.7 mm long. Petals glabrous (a few sparse cilia sometimes present), obscurely clawed, subcircular, 2.5 – 3.5 mm long. Stamens in 5 distinct bundles, or occasionally solitary free stamens occur between the bundles, 5 –7 per bundle; filaments glabrous, white, 7–11 mm long, bundle claw 2 – 2.5 mm long; anthers oblong or elliptic, 0.7–1.1 mm long. Ovary wall adnate to the hypanthium for the proximal one-half, 3-locular; style glabrous, 7.5–11 mm long; ovules c. 40–120 per locule. Fruit not early dehiscent and apparently persisting for 1 year or more, cup- or squat barrel-shaped, 2– 3.5 mm long, 3.3 – 5 mm wide, 0.6 – 0.8 times as long as wide, 1.8 – 2.5 mm wide at the orifice. Seed angular narrowly obovoid, 0.8–1 mm long, testa membranous, cotyledons about half the length of the embryo, obvolute.

Distribution — Australia (Northern Territory, floodplain and coastal swamp regions in the Top End).

Habitat & Ecology — Recorded as occurring on low areas beside billabong, in swale of coastal dunes, as scattered trees on floodplain, in seasonal sandy swamp, on outer edge of riparian forest, on levee bank beside creekline, in paperbark woodland, on a sandy chenier ridge, on a sandy drainage flat, and as forming a community near mangroves; usually in

© 2013 Nationaal Herbarium Nederland seasonally inundated habitats. Flowering: September, October; fruiting: most months.

Specimens studied. Barritt & Wightman 1932, Brocklehurst 648, Brocklehurst & Dunlop 456, 457, Cameron s.n. 1/10/1973, Cowie 7335 (type), Cowie & Mangion 7717, 7955, Dunlop & Cowie 9482, Dunlop & Taylor 6185, Dunlop & Wightman 9246, 9769, Scarlett 141, Waterhouse 9842, Waterhouse & Burgman 9602, Waterhouse & Sanderson 9528, Wightman 734, 1632, 7000.

Notes — 1. In ethnobotanical accounts of flora in the Northern Territory, this species is treated under the name ‘ Melaleuca sp. nov. ’, ‘ Melaleuca sp. (D120590)’ and ‘ Melaleuca sp. (‘red bark’, D120590)’ ( Yunupingu et al. 1995, Blake et al. 1998, Puruntatameri et al. 2001; G. Wightman pers. comm.). In a floristic list of plants in the Alligator Rivers region of the Northern Territory, the species is listed as Melaleuca sp. D 20720 ( Brennan 1996). The specimen Waterhouse 9842 is listed as Melaleuca sp. nov. by Waterhouse & Puttock (1981) in their list of vascular plant species on the Jabiluka area, Northern Territory. Melaleuca ferruginea , as circumscribed above, apparently includes at least part of the taxonomic concept of the unpublished name M. dealbata subsp. glabrescens Barlow.

2. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin ferrugineus, rusty, light reddish brown, and refers to the new bark colour of this species.

3. Kenneally 10737, from near Broome in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, may also be referable to this species.