RIVER PAPERBARK
Melaleuca trichostachya
Plant Family
Myrtaceae
Alternative Common Names
Flax leaf paperbark, medicinan teatree.
Multi-stemmed shrub or tree to 6m high, the bark on the trunk and larger branches is white, papery and peeling.
Leaves - mostly opposite, linear-lanceolate, 12-15mm long, 1.5-2mm wide, flat, the tip pointed.
Flowers - white, in an open “bottlebrush” spike near the tip of a branch, the main axis bearing long soft hairs, the stamens much longer than the small petals.
Fruit - rusty-coloured thin-walled ovoid capsule, about 2mm diameter.
Flowering summer.
Indigenous uses - headache cure; bactericides and germicidal oil: wounds, sore and ulcers, styptics; treatment of boils, ulcers, abscesses, sores, cuts and abrasions; reputed to cure skin conditions such as ringworm.
Habitat
Along banks of permanent watercourses in river red gum communities and in nearby swamps which regularly flood.
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