Species
+

Melaleuca bracteata F.Muell.

Black Tea-tree, Oron-Wood, Ridge Myrtle, River Tea-tree

Climate known 81 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Melaleuca bracteata, commonly known as the black tea-tree, river tea-tree or mock olive is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to northern Australia. It usually occurs as a large shrub but under ideal conditions can grow into a tree up to 10 m (30 ft) tall. It is an adaptable species in cultivation and a number of cultivars have been developed.

Text from Wikipedia, “Melaleuca bracteata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Melaleuca

Melaleuca is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles, bottlebrushes or tea-trees. They range in size from small shrubs that rarely grow to more than 1 m high, to trees up to 35 m (115 ft). Their flowers generally occur in groups, forming a "head" or "spike" resembling a brush used for cleaning bottles, containing up to 80 individual flowers.

Text from Wikipedia, “Melaleuca”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Myrtaceae
Described by
F.Muell.
Native to
New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland +2
Wild records
1385 in range· 1259 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Jan, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
697mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Feb 121 mm (CHELSA)
Light
23–44DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 697 mm a year, wettest February at 121 mm, driest September at 25 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 44 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 2.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Melaleuca daleana Blakely; Melaleuca genistifolia var. coriacea Ewart; Melaleuca glaucocalyx Gand.; Melaleuca monticola J.M.Black.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (505 mm of 697 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.5 °C against a yearly mean of 20.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 697 mm a year, wettest February at 121 mm, driest September at 25 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

697 mm a year at the habitat, 505 mm of it October to March. Wettest month February at 121 mm, driest September at 25 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 368 mm to 1091 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 44 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 44 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 2.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 2.6 °C, the absolute minimum -0.8 °C, 5 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 9.2 °C in July (across the envelope cells 4.5 °C to 14.0 °C), warmest day 31.2 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 52 to 59% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 19 °C in Jul to 31 °C in Jan; mean night from 9 °C in Jul to 21 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 697 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 914 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -0.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost38.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)-0.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 23–44RH 52–59 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 914 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C31 / 27–3630 / 26–3529 / 25–3426 / 22–3323 / 19–3020 / 16–2619 / 15–2622 / 17–2926 / 20–3329 / 23–3630 / 24–3731 / 26–36
Night °C21 / 18–2521 / 18–2419 / 16–2317 / 12–2113 / 9–1810 / 6–159 / 5–1410 / 5–1613 / 8–1916 / 12–2218 / 14–2420 / 16–25
Rain mm104 / 60–215121 / 53–20766 / 36–12341 / 19–9540 / 12–8634 / 9–6926 / 4–6026 / 1–5025 / 4–5144 / 18–7771 / 35–10499 / 49–141
DLI42 / 40–4838 / 35–4537 / 31–4130 / 26–3725 / 20–3223 / 17–3024 / 19–3130 / 25–3738 / 33–4242 / 38–4644 / 40–4844 / 41–48
RH %58 / 43–6259 / 47–6356 / 44–6255 / 44–6156 / 45–6156 / 47–6055 / 45–5954 / 41–5752 / 40–5652 / 40–5853 / 41–5955 / 43–60

Each figure is the median across the 914 grid cells holding the 1263 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2296:6629 (-24.825, 151.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 914 distinct grid cells holding the 1263 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2296:6629 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -25.00_151.250, lapse-corrected -7 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 299 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNew South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia
Kew's description“tree” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-27.611, 152.818 · in the densest population, 481 records (35% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1385 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1259 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 241 km away. 22 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 122 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1385 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Melaleuca bracteataMelaleuca bracteataMelaleuca bracteataMelaleuca bracteataMelaleuca bracteataMelaleuca bracteataMelaleuca bracteataMelaleuca bracteata

Photographs: (c) Dave Richardson, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (5).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Melaleuca bracteata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Chemical composition, antibacterial and antioxidant activities of essential oils from leaves of three Melaleuca species of Pakistani flora
Saima Siddique, Zahida Parveen, Firdaus‐e‐Bareen, Sania Mazhar (2017) · Arabian Journal of Chemistry
Aluminum tolerance and aluminum-induced deposition of callose and lignin in the root tips of Melaleuca and Eucalyptus species
Ko Tahara, Mariko Norisada, Taizo Hogetsu, Katsumi Kojima (2005) · Journal of Forest Research
Antibacterial Activity and Anti-Quorum Sensing Mediated Phenotype in Response to Essential Oil from Melaleuca bracteata Leaves
Wenting Wang, Xiaoqin Huang, Huixiang Yang, Xianqian Niu (2019) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Production of betaine from Australian Melaleuca spp. for use in agriculture to reduce plant stress
Bodapati P. Naidu (2003) · Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture
Anti-quorum sensing evaluation of methyleugenol, the principal bioactive component, from the Melaleuca bracteata leaf oil
Wenting Wang, Xiaojie Lin, Huixiang Yang, Xiaoqin Huang (2022) · Frontiers in Microbiology
Antibacterial neolignans from the leaves of Melaleuca bracteata
Can Li, Hongxin Liu, Liyun Zhao, Weimin Zhang (2017) · Fitoterapia

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Melaleuca 8 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 37 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.