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Granite Bottlebush

Melaleuca elliptica

Also called Granite Bottlebrush

Granite Bottlebush
Photo: Geoff Derrin, CC BY-SA 4.0
Family
Myrtaceae (Myrtle family)
Grows as
Shrub
Native range
SW. & S. Western Australia
Climate
subtropical

About

Melaleuca elliptica, commonly known as the granite bottlebrush is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south of Western Australia. The Noongar name for the plant is gnow.

It is commonly grown in gardens because of its neat foliage and showy, bright red flower spikes although it needs to be pruned regularly to avoid becoming woody and untidy-looking. In nature, it usually grows in the shrub layer in mallee woodland or heath.

How to grow it

This species is well known in cultivation as a hardy plant in sunny situations where the soil is reasonable well drained. It is frost hardy and adaptable to most situations in temperate regions but needs to be pruned regularly to avoid looking woody. Since the flowers usually appear on old wood, appropriate pruning can also be used to show the flowers to best advantage.

Where it grows

Melaleuca elliptica occurs in and between the Bendering in the west, to the Ongerup district in the south and as far east as the eastern edge of the Nullarbor Plain. It grows in sandy soils, often near granite outcrops in mallee woodland and heath.

Other Melaleuca plants

Kalbarri Beaufortia · Dark Beaufortia · Badgingarra Beaufortia · Beaufortia bracteosa · Beaufortia burbidgeae · Stirling Range Bottlebrush · Gravel Bottlebrush · Elegant Beaufortia · Beaufortia empetrifolia · Beaufortia eriocephala · Grey Leaved Beaufortia · Beaufortia interstans

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Melaleuca elliptica by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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