BLACK TEA TREE
Melaleuca bracteata
Plant Family
Myrtaceae
Alternative Common Names
River tea-tree or mock olive.
Bushy-foliaged, shrub or small tree 5-12 m high. Its bark is rough and dark grey in colour.
Leaves - are narrow, lance-shaped to linear, 8–28 mm long by 1–3 mm wide with no stalk, or a very short stalk. They are spirally arranged around the stem and crowded together with the upper surface of the leaf hairy, especially when young, with many oil-dots.
Flowers - by time plant is 5-8m tall with masses of white flowers and sets seed.
Fruit - more or less spherical to oval or barrel-shaped, about 3 mm in diameter, sparsely arranged along the branches.
Flowering spring to early summer.
Indigenous uses - the leaves were put on a fire & then inhaled to treat colds; later when people had utensils the leaves were boiled & inhaled.
Habitat
Along inland waterways; along stream banks and in wet sites.
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