Melaleuca nervosa (Lindl.) Cheel

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 : 208

2. Melaleuca nervosa (Lindl.) Cheel

Melaleuca nervosa (Lindl.) Cheel (1944) 65. — Callistemon nervosum Lindl. (1848) 235. — Melaleuca leucadendron (L.) L. var.? parvifolia Benth. (1867) 143, p.p. (as to C. nervosus ). — Melaleuca leucadendron (L.) L. var. nervosa (Lindl.) Domin (1928) 457, nom. illeg. — Type: Mitchell 241 (holo CGE n.v.; iso BRI fragm, K, MEL, NSW n.v.), Australia, Queensland, Balmy Creek, July 1846.

Melaleuca crosslandiana W.Fitzg.(1906) 10. — Melaleuca leucadendron (L.) L. var. coriacea forma crosslandiana (W.Fitzg.) Cheel (1917) 298. — Melaleuca nervosa (Lindl.) Cheel subsp. crosslandiana (W.Fitzg.) Barlow ex Craven (1999) 23. — Type (fide Blake (1968) 43): Fitzgerald 1116 (lecto NSW; isolecto BRI), Australia, Western Australia, base of Mt Harris, June 1905.

Melaleuca nervosa (Lindl.) Cheel forma latifolia Byrnes (1984) 74. — Type: Blake 16344 (holo BRI), Australia, Northern Territory, about SE of Brocks Creek, July 1946.

Note — There is too great a degree of overlap in morphological features to warrant the continued recognition of M. crosslandiana at any rank. The only non-overlapping feature that serves to distinguish M. crosslandiana from M. nervosa apparently is the occurrence of appressed hairs on the branchlets and leaves in the former species, and even this is not constant with spreading-ascending hairs also occurring. Both species have lanuginulose hairs on the branchlets and leaves.