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Melaleuca cuticularis; photograph (c) Carmon, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Carmon, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2026-07-18

Melaleuca cuticularis Labill.

Saltwater paperbark; Western Swamp-paperbark; Salt paperbark; White paperbark

Myrtaceae · South Australia, Western Australia

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Melaleuca cuticularis, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMelaleuca cuticularis, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMelaleuca cuticularis, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMelaleuca cuticularis, photograph (c) Carmon, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Melaleuca cuticularis, photograph (c) James (Jim) Duggan, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Melaleuca cuticularis, photograph (c) James (Jim) Duggan, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 76 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
5.7°C
Record low 3.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
588mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
15–47DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes November to April (May to October at the habitat), read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Melaleuca cuticularis, commonly known as the saltwater paperbark is a tree in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is native to the south-west of Western Australia. There is also a disjunct population on Kangaroo Island in South Australia. It is distinguished from other melaleucas by its unusual fruits and very white, papery bark.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Melaleuca cuticularis", 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 a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (418 mm of 586 mm) falls in May to October, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 13.5 °C against a yearly mean of 16.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Rain

586 mm in the median year at the habitat, 418 mm of it May to October. Wettest month July at 86 mm, driest months (2 at 20 mm). Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 414 mm to 907 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 588 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 586 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 47 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 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 53).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 5.7 °C, the absolute minimum 3.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 9.2 °C in July and August (across the grid cells of the range 5.8 °C to 11.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.7 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 58% 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 +7 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

Habitat climate of Melaleuca cuticularis through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest months July and August, mean nightly low 9.2 °C; 586 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°36.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER3.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 15–47RH 57–58%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 278 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C26 / 22–2926 / 22–2924 / 22–2621 / 20–2319 / 18–2016 / 15–1715 / 14–1616 / 14–1717 / 16–1819 / 17–2122 / 19–2424 / 20–26
Night °C16 / 14–1817 / 14–1816 / 13–1714 / 11–1512 / 9–1410 / 7–129 / 6–119 / 6–1110 / 7–1211 / 8–1313 / 11–1515 / 12–16
Rain mm24 / 14–3720 / 13–2431 / 21–4439 / 26–6069 / 46–12883 / 49–17286 / 51–17180 / 48–13460 / 41–9840 / 28–6434 / 26–4620 / 10–29
DLI47 / 45–5342 / 39–4733 / 31–3824 / 22–2818 / 16–1915 / 13–1616 / 14–1621 / 19–2228 / 25–2937 / 33–4043 / 40–4847 / 44–53
RH %57 / 52–5957 / 52–5958 / 53–5958 / 55–5958 / 56–6058 / 57–6258 / 57–6258 / 56–6258 / 57–6157 / 56–5957 / 54–5957 / 53–59
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 278 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (418 records in those cells; 3 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2474:6071 (-33.725, 123.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 278 distinct grid cells holding 418 of the 423 in-range records (3 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2474:6071 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -33.50_123.750, lapse-corrected +7 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 78 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeSouth Australia, Western Australia · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-34.583, 117.562 · in the densest population, 355 records (72% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 494 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 418 of them in the land cells it reads, of 423 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 411 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 73 km away. 10 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 71 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 494 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Melaleuca cuticularis, photograph 1did not loadMelaleuca cuticularis, photograph 2did not loadMelaleuca cuticularis, photograph 3did not loadMelaleuca cuticularis, photograph 4did not loadMelaleuca cuticularis, photograph 5did not loadMelaleuca cuticularis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Carmon, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) James (Jim) Duggan, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Drosera occidentalis Drosera occidentalis Droseraceae Photo: CC BY, Hugo InnesMyoporum tetrandrum Myoporum tetrandrum Boobialla Photo: CC BY, Belinda ForbesKunzea baxteri Kunzea baxteri Scarlet kunzea Photo: CC BY-SA, CarmonKennedia nigricans Kennedia nigricans Black coral-pea Photo: CC0, author not statedAnigozanthos rufus Anigozanthos rufus Red kangaroo-paw Photo: CC BY, Hugo InnesEucalyptus tetraptera Eucalyptus tetraptera Four-wing mallee Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Melaleuca 100 in the reference

Melaleuca acuminata Melaleuca acuminata Mallee honey myrtle Photo: CC BY, Rosalie LawrenceMelaleuca aestiva Melaleuca aestiva Kalbarri Beaufortia Photo: CC0, author not statedMelaleuca alternifolia Melaleuca alternifolia Narrow-leaf paperbark Photo: CC BY, Татьяна МаксимоваMelaleuca armillaris Melaleuca armillaris Bracelet honey myrtle Photo: CC0, author not statedMelaleuca beaufortioides Melaleuca beaufortioides Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY, T. HammerMelaleuca biconvexa Melaleuca biconvexa Biconvex paperbark Photo: CC BY-SA, Lachlan CopelandMelaleuca brachyandra Melaleuca brachyandra Myrtaceae Photo: CC0, DaderotMelaleuca bracteata Melaleuca bracteata River Tea-tree Photo: CC0, author not statedMelaleuca brevifolia Melaleuca brevifolia Mallee honey myrtle Photo: CC BY, T. HammerMelaleuca cajuputi Melaleuca cajuputi Cajuput Photo: CC0, author not statedMelaleuca capitata Melaleuca capitata Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY, Bryce Watts-ParkerMelaleuca comboynensis Melaleuca comboynensis Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Alberto Salguero all 101 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Cajuputi cuticularis; Kajuputi cuticularis; Melaleuca abietina; Myrtoleucodendron cuticulare. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Myrtaceae
Described by
Labill.
Native to
South Australia, Western Australia
Wild records
494 in range · 411 open

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 record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.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)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -33.50_123.750, lapse-corrected +7 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.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 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every 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 22 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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