Plant Wiki

The open plant encyclopedia

Know any plant.
Grow it well.

Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.

  • 13,000+plants with full pages
  • 365,000+plant species worldwide
  • 220+countries covered

Common in

See all

The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.

What do you want to do?

Popular plants

Browse all plants

See them in 3D

All plants in 3D

Browse plants

Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.

Plant Wiki › Browse plants

Stonewood

Melaleuca salicina

Also called White Bottlebrush, Willow Bottlebrush, Pink Tip Bottlebrush, Pink Tips

Stonewood
Photo: Geoff Derrin, CC BY-SA 4.0

Melaleuca salicina, also called willow bottlebrush, is a fast-growing shrub or small tree from eastern Australia with soft pink new growth, white papery bark and creamy bottlebrush flowers in spring. It is adaptable to many soils and tolerates wet or dry conditions, but it is not frost hardy.

Family
Myrtaceae (Myrtle family)
Grows as
Tree, Shrub
Light
Full sun
Water
Water regularly while establishing, then tolerate both wet and dry spells once mature.
Soil
Wide range of soil types, including heavy and sandy soils.
Temperature
Frost tender; protect from frost. Suited to warm temperate to subtropical climates.
How easy
Easy

About

Melaleuca salicina, commonly known as willow bottlebrush is a plant in the myrtle family Myrtaceae, and is endemic to eastern Australia. Some Australian state herbaria continue to use the name Callistemon salignus, a name that is accepted by the Australian Plant Census. It is a shrub or small tree with soft foliage, pink new growth, white papery bark and spikes of usually white or creamy bottlebrush flowers in spring.

How to grow it

Melaleuca salicina has been known in gardens over many years, usually as Callistemon salignus. Under that synonym it has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. It can be used for providing shelter and screening and is well-suited as a street tree, or for planting in parks and gardens. Additionally, flowers will attract birds to a garden. The species is suited to a wide range of soil types, and can tolerate both wet and dry conditions and near-coastal exposure but it is not frost tolerant.

Pink and red forms are seen in cultivation.

Where it grows

This melaleuca occurs in New South Wales from the border with Victoria along the coast and ranges to the Biloela and Bundaberg districts in Queensland. It grows along watercourses and coastal waterways and on river flats .

Other Callistemon plants

Melaleuca comboynensis · Callistemon kenmorrisonii · Melaleuca linearifolia · Melaleuca pearsonii · Melaleuca pityoides · Melaleuca orophila · Bottlebrush · Prickly Bottlebrush · Melaleuca buseana · Melaleuca flammea · Melaleuca flavovirens · Melaleuca formosa

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Melaleuca salicina by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Credits & terms

Identify a plant

Point at a leaf or flower and snap. One plant in frame works best.

Your photo
Starting camera…