Melaleuca lophocoracorum facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Melaleuca lophocoracorum |
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| Melaleuca lophocoracorum recovering from fire, near Ravenshoe, Queensland | |
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Melaleuca
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| Species: |
lophocoracorum
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Melaleuca lophocoracorum is a special plant that belongs to the myrtle family. You can only find it in a small area of the Ravenshoe State Forest, near Ravenshoe in Queensland, Australia. This plant was only officially named in 2013. It grows as a shrub or a small tree and has unique twisted leaves. In summer, it produces lovely cream-coloured flowers. It looks a bit like two other plants, Melaleuca squamophloia and Melaleuca styphelioides.
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What Melaleuca lophocoracorum Looks Like
Melaleuca lophocoracorum can grow into a shrub or a small tree, reaching up to 10 m (30 ft) tall. Its leaves are arranged one after another along the stem. Each leaf is about 2.8–8.5 mm (0.1–0.3 in) long and 2.7–3.8 mm (0.11–0.15 in) wide. They are shaped like an egg, but they are also twisted. The leaves narrow down to a sharp point, but it's not prickly.
Flowers and Fruit
The flowers of this plant are cream-coloured. They grow in spikes at the ends of branches, and also along the sides of the branches. Even after the flowers bloom, the branches keep growing! These flower spikes are about 18 mm (0.7 in) across and 25 mm (1 in) long. Each spike has 3 to 9 groups of flowers, with three flowers in each group.
Inside the flowers, there are stamens (the parts that make pollen). These stamens are grouped into five bundles around the flower. Each bundle has 15 to 25 stamens. You can see these flowers in December and January. After the flowers, the plant grows woody capsules (fruit) that are about 2.6–3.1 mm (0.10–0.12 in) long. These fruits hold the seeds for more than three years! They only release the seeds if the plant burns or the part of the plant with the fruit dies. The sepals (small leaf-like parts under the flower) stay on the fruit like little teeth for over a year.
How Melaleuca lophocoracorum Got Its Name
Melaleuca lophocoracorum was first found in 2012. It was officially described and named in 2013 by three scientists: Andrew Ford, Lyn Craven, and Joe Brophy. They wrote about it in a science journal called Telopea. They found the first plant sample on a walking path near Bally Knob, close to Ravenshoe.
Meaning of the Name
The second part of its scientific name, lophocoracorum, comes from two Ancient Greek words. Lophos means "crest" (like the top of a hill), and korax means "raven". This is a clever way to name it after "Ravenshoe." That's because "hoe" in "Ravenshoe" originally meant "ridge" or "crest of a hill." So, lophocoracorum basically means "Ravenshoe"!
Where Melaleuca lophocoracorum Lives
This special melaleuca plant is only found in a very small area, less than 1 km2 (0.4 sq mi), near Ravenshoe. Scientists believe there are no more than 600 of these individual plants in total. It grows in forests, usually in wet or swampy soil. This soil is often found on rhyolite rock near creeks. It seems that how big the plants grow depends on how deep the soil is where they live.
Images for kids
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Habit after fire, near Ravenshoe
