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Melaleuca hypericifolia; photograph (c) Bryce Watts-Parker, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Bryce Watts-Parker, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-05

Melaleuca hypericifolia Sm.

Red honey myrtle; Hillock bush; Red-flowering Tea Tree

Myrtaceae · New South Wales

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Melaleuca hypericifolia, photograph (c) Bryce Watts-Parker, some rights reserved (CC BY)Melaleuca hypericifolia, photograph (c) James K. Douch, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Melaleuca hypericifolia, photograph (c) James K. Douch, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Melaleuca hypericifolia, photograph (c) Bryce Watts-Parker, some rights reserved (CC BY)Melaleuca hypericifolia, photograph (c) Bryce Watts-Parker, some rights reserved (CC BY)Melaleuca hypericifolia, photograph (c) Bryce Watts-Parker, some rights reserved (CC BY) 65 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
4.7°C
Record low 1.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
25°C
Jan at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,071mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
16–42DLI
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
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Melaleuca hypericifolia, commonly known as hillock bush, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, genus Melaleuca and is endemic to New South Wales in Australia. It has large, orange to red flower spikes and consequently is a commonly cultivated species. In 1797, James Edward Smith described the plant as:

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Melaleuca hypericifolia", 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 (777 mm of 1,054 mm) takes 8 months, November to June. Mean temperature moves 9.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to December.

Rain

1,054 mm in the median year at the habitat, 777 mm of it November to June. Wettest month February at 126 mm, driest month September at 61 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 839 mm to 1,225 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,071 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,054 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: 16 to 42 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
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 4.7 °C, the absolute minimum 1.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 7.6 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 3.6 °C to 10.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 24.5 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 4.7 °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: 56 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 +34 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 hypericifolia through the yearWarmest month January, mean daily high 25 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 7.6 °C; 1,054 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°35.7° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER1.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 16–42RH 56–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 259 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 °C25 / 23–2624 / 23–2623 / 21–2420 / 18–2118 / 15–1915 / 12–1615 / 11–1616 / 13–1718 / 16–2020 / 19–2221 / 20–2323 / 22–25
Night °C18 / 14–2018 / 14–2017 / 13–1914 / 10–1711 / 7–149 / 5–128 / 4–118 / 4–1110 / 6–1313 / 9–1515 / 11–1717 / 13–19
Rain mm87 / 72–101126 / 102–15191 / 69–112100 / 75–12993 / 64–12295 / 66–11869 / 51–9365 / 46–7861 / 51–7582 / 66–9397 / 81–10988 / 75–97
DLI41 / 40–4235 / 34–3730 / 29–3124 / 23–2418 / 17–1916 / 14–1618 / 16–1824 / 22–2431 / 29–3237 / 36–3740 / 38–4142 / 40–43
RH %62 / 59–6363 / 60–6462 / 60–6361 / 59–6260 / 58–6259 / 57–6258 / 56–6156 / 55–5857 / 55–5858 / 56–5960 / 58–6161 / 58–62
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 259 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (732 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 2472:6622 (-33.625, 151.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 1.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 4.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.7 °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 259 distinct grid cells holding 732 of the 738 in-range records (3 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2472:6622 (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_151.250, lapse-corrected +34 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 133 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.
NativeNew South Wales · 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-34.115, 150.937 · in the densest population, 682 records (89% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 767 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 732 of them in the land cells it reads, of 738 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 529 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3 km away. 162 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 29 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.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 9079647 (Melaleuca hypericifolia C.Sm.): Kew's file holds it as Melaleuca hypericifolia Sm. (accepted); 0 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 767 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 hypericifolia, photograph 1did not loadMelaleuca hypericifolia, photograph 2did not loadMelaleuca hypericifolia, photograph 3did not loadMelaleuca hypericifolia, photograph 4did not loadMelaleuca hypericifolia, photograph 5did not loadMelaleuca hypericifolia, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Bryce Watts-Parker, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) James K. Douch, 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.

Banksia ericifolia Banksia ericifolia Heath-leaf banksia Photo: CC BY-SA, Ruth PalssonEucalyptus scias Eucalyptus scias Red Mahogany Photo: CC BY-SA, Lachlan CopelandDarwinia fascicularis Darwinia fascicularis Clustered darwinia Photo: CC BY-SA, James K. DouchEpacris longiflora Epacris longiflora Fuchsia-heath Photo: CC BY-SA, James K. DouchKunzea capitata Kunzea capitata Pink Kunzea Photo: CC BY, Austen ArmstrongEucalyptus longifolia Eucalyptus longifolia Woollybutt Photo: CC BY, Max Campbell

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 hypericifolia; Metrosideros hypericifolia; Myrtoleucodendron hypericifolium. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Myrtaceae
Described by
Sm.
Native to
New South Wales
Wild records
767 in range · 529 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 answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 0 records of GBIF's key 9079647, Melaleuca hypericifolia C.Sm. (Kew's file holds it as Melaleuca hypericifolia Sm. (accepted)): GBIF occurrence search API; 44 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (33 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 6 at a herbarium, 5 at a zoo; 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_151.250, lapse-corrected +34 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 34 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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