37 photographs › At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
Summary
Melaleuca capitata is a shrub in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to New South Wales. It has scaly bark, a densely foliaged habit and attractive heads of creamy-yellow flowers on the ends of its branches in summer.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Melaleuca capitata", CC BY-SA 4.0.
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.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Melaleuca", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Seasons
The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (761 mm of 1,061 mm) takes 8 months, October to February and April to June. Mean temperature moves 11.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to August and October to December.
Rain
1,061 mm in the median year at the habitat, 761 mm of it October to February and April to June. Wettest month February at 123 mm, driest month August at 64 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 852 mm to 1,255 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,067 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,061 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.
Light
Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 3.1 °C, the absolute minimum 0.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 4.5 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 2.8 °C to 10.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 24.1 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 3.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
How this section is made
Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.
Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light. 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.
Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +431 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.
Climate across the habitat
Habitat months, southern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 12 °C in Jul to 24 °C in Jan; mean nightly low from 5 °C in Jul and Aug to 15 °C in Jan and Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 2 months in a row that tie for it. 1,061 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 69 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was 0.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 24 / 23–26 | 23 / 23–24 | 22 / 21–22 | 19 / 17–20 | 15 / 14–18 | 13 / 11–15 | 12 / 11–15 | 13 / 12–15 | 17 / 15–18 | 19 / 18–20 | 21 / 20–22 | 23 / 22–24 |
| Night °C | 15 / 14–19 | 15 / 14–20 | 13 / 12–18 | 11 / 9–16 | 8 / 6–14 | 6 / 4–12 | 5 / 3–11 | 5 / 3–11 | 7 / 6–13 | 9 / 8–14 | 11 / 10–16 | 13 / 12–18 |
| Rain mm | 88 / 73–102 | 123 / 99–136 | 84 / 70–99 | 86 / 63–120 | 86 / 63–131 | 104 / 81–130 | 84 / 60–100 | 64 / 53–71 | 68 / 56–82 | 87 / 71–97 | 98 / 79–113 | 89 / 77–101 |
| DLI | 40 / 39–42 | 34 / 33–36 | 30 / 29–30 | 23 / 22–24 | 17 / 16–18 | 15 / 14–15 | 17 / 16–17 | 23 / 22–23 | 30 / 29–31 | 36 / 35–37 | 39 / 38–40 | 41 / 40–43 |
| RH % | 61 / 59–63 | 63 / 62–64 | 62 / 61–63 | 61 / 59–62 | 61 / 58–63 | 61 / 57–63 | 60 / 56–62 | 58 / 55–59 | 57 / 56–58 | 58 / 57–58 | 60 / 59–61 | 61 / 59–61 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Bryce Watts-Parker, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Eucryphia moorei Acacia-plum Photo: CC BY, Bryce Watts-Parker Blechnum patersonii Aspleniaceae 
Parapolystichum acuminatum Shiny shield-fern Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg Tasney
Grevillea rivularis Proteaceae Photo: CC BY, Guy Taseski
Leptospermum morrisonii Large-leaf yellow teatree Photo: CC BY, Guy Taseski
Epacris microphylla Coral Heath Photo: CC BY, ian_mcallanOther Melaleuca 100 in the reference
Melaleuca acuminata Mallee honey myrtle Photo: CC BY, Rosalie Lawrence
Melaleuca aestiva Kalbarri Beaufortia Photo: CC0, author not stated
Melaleuca alternifolia Narrow-leaf paperbark Photo: CC BY, Татьяна Максимова
Melaleuca armillaris Bracelet honey myrtle Photo: CC0, author not stated
Melaleuca beaufortioides Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY, T. Hammer
Melaleuca biconvexa Biconvex paperbark Photo: CC BY-SA, Lachlan Copeland
Melaleuca brachyandra Myrtaceae Photo: CC0, Daderot
Melaleuca bracteata River Tea-tree Photo: CC0, author not stated
Melaleuca brevifolia Mallee honey myrtle Photo: CC BY, T. Hammer
Melaleuca cajuputi Cajuput Photo: CC0, author not stated
Melaleuca comboynensis Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Alberto Salguero
Melaleuca conothamnoides Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY, Ian McMaster all 101 ›Names & registers
The record
Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →
Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 2 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -35.00_150.625, lapse-corrected +431 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rulesopenalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 16 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.