Moonah

Moonah photos

Family: Myrtle (Myrtaceae)

Scientific Name:

Melaleuca lanceolata

Moona
Photograph courtesy of Viridans Biological Databases
(external link)

Other Common
Names:

Black Tea-tree, Dryland Tea-tree, Rottnest Island Tea-tree, Western Tea-tree

Description:

Medium sized shrub or small tree, to 7 m high, often with a large domed canopy. Bark finely cracked, rough and grey-brown. Leaves alternate, narrow to linear-lanceolate, 5–10 mm long, 1–2 mm wide, smooth, dull-green, stiff, shortly stalked, often curved downwards. Flowering in summer, flowers white to cream, intermixed with leaves in an irregular bottle-brush like spike 3–6 cm long, the stamens in bundles of 12 and much longer than the petals. Fruit a spherical to ovoid woody capsule, 4–5 mm.

Habitat:

Found on red clay loams in the Mallee and on reddish-brown, often saline, heavy clays subject to periodic waterlogging. Can be found on lighter soils in association with yellow box, or on highly calcareous soils scattered throughout the Mallee and Wimmera. Also occurs on white alkaline clayey sands around the margins of dry lakes.

Region	Salinity Class	Waterlogging Class
Mallee, Loddon Murray, Central and Northern, Wimmera, Western, Gippsland	S0, S1, S2, S3	W2, W3

Comments:

A key to the more common Melaleuca species on waterlogged and saline land can be accessed here – Key to Melaleuca.

Moonah Photos

Moonah - tree Photo: A J Brown	Moonah - bark Photo: A J Brown
Moonah - fruit Photo: A J Brown	Moonah - tips Photo: A J Brown
Moonah - mature fruit Photo: A J Brown

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