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Melaleuca linearifolia; photograph (c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2020-11-22

Melaleuca linearifolia (Link) Craven

Netted Bottle Brush

Myrtaceae · New South Wales

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Melaleuca linearifolia (Link) Craven: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Sm.

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Melaleuca linearifolia, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY)Melaleuca linearifolia, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY)Melaleuca linearifolia, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY)Melaleuca linearifolia, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY)Melaleuca linearifolia, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY)Melaleuca linearifolia, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY) 87 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
5.3°C
Record low 2.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Jan, Feb and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,159mm
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 linearifolia, commonly known as netted bottlebrush, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to New South Wales in Australia. (Some Australian state herbaria continue to use the name Callistemon linearifolius). It is a shrub with narrow, pointed leaves and red flower spikes in spring or summer.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Melaleuca linearifolia", 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 (873 mm of 1,141 mm) takes 8 months, November to June. Mean temperature moves 10.4 °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

1,141 mm in the median year at the habitat, 873 mm of it November to June. Wettest month February at 146 mm, driest month August at 58 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,038 mm to 1,212 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,159 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,141 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).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 5.3 °C, the absolute minimum 2.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 8.9 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 7.2 °C to 10.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.4 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5.3 °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: 55 to 62% 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 -91 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 linearifolia through the yearWarmest months January, February and December, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 8.9 °C; 1,141 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°37.7° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER2.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 16–42RH 55–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 22 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 / 25–2826 / 24–2724 / 23–2522 / 21–2219 / 18–2016 / 16–1716 / 15–1717 / 17–1820 / 19–2122 / 21–2424 / 22–2526 / 24–27
Night °C19 / 19–2020 / 19–2018 / 17–1916 / 14–1713 / 11–1410 / 9–129 / 7–119 / 8–1112 / 10–1314 / 13–1516 / 15–1718 / 17–19
Rain mm89 / 79–125146 / 126–154114 / 95–131122 / 104–132108 / 87–120101 / 75–11170 / 60–7858 / 51–7361 / 51–6679 / 72–87103 / 93–11690 / 84–119
DLI41 / 40–4136 / 35–3630 / 30–3124 / 24–2619 / 18–2116 / 16–1918 / 18–2124 / 24–2632 / 31–3437 / 37–3840 / 39–4042 / 41–42
RH %61 / 60–6262 / 61–6362 / 61–6260 / 60–6160 / 59–6158 / 57–5957 / 56–5855 / 54–5655 / 55–5757 / 56–5859 / 58–6160 / 58–61
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 22 grid cells holding the 32 in-range records, 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 2453:6637 (-32.675, 151.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 2.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.7 °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 22 distinct grid cells holding 32 of the 32 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2453:6637 (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 -32.50_151.875, lapse-corrected -91 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 35 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-32.93, 151.57 · in the densest population, 28 records (88% 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 and the climate across the range rest on all 32 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 27 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 3173395 (Callistemon linearifolius (Link) DC.): Kew's file holds it as Callistemon linearifolius (Link) DC. (synonym under Melaleuca linearifolia (Link) Craven); 900 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 32 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 linearifolia, photograph 1did not loadMelaleuca linearifolia, photograph 2did not loadMelaleuca linearifolia, photograph 3did not loadMelaleuca linearifolia, photograph 4did not loadMelaleuca linearifolia, photograph 5did not loadMelaleuca linearifolia, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

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

Melaleuca linariifolia Melaleuca linariifolia Cajeput tree Photo: CC BY, Caleb CattoPultenaea villosa Pultenaea villosa Bronze bush-pea Photo: CC0, author not statedMelaleuca thymifolia Melaleuca thymifolia Thymeleaf melaleuca Photo: CC BY-SA, bughntrCentella asiatica Centella asiatica Spadeleaf Photo: CC0, author not statedZieria smithii Zieria smithii Sandfly Zieria Photo: CC BY, ian_mcallanParsonsia straminea Parsonsia straminea Common Silkpod Photo: CC BY-SA, Ruth Palsson

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 Callistemon linearifolius; Metrosideros linearifolia. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Myrtaceae
Described by
(Link) Craven
Native to
New South Wales
Wild records
32 in range · 27 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 2026-10-22GBIF's key 11178763 is Melaleuca linearifolia Sm.; Kew accepts Melaleuca linearifolia (Link) Craven, and the name is cited as Kew accepts it; its synonyms and common names are read from GBIF's Melaleuca linearifolia (Link) Craven (5415484), which GBIF files under Callistemon linearifolius (Link) DC. (3173395) too
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-222 read from GBIF's Melaleuca linearifolia (Link) Craven (5415484), which GBIF files under Callistemon linearifolius (Link) DC. (3173395)
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; 900 records of GBIF's key 3173395, Callistemon linearifolius (Link) DC. (Kew's file holds it as Callistemon linearifolius (Link) DC. (synonym under Melaleuca linearifolia (Link) Craven)): GBIF occurrence search API; 4 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (4 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 -32.50_151.875, lapse-corrected -91 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by its label; its IPNI identifier 77085513-1 is Kew's for Melaleuca linearifolia (Link) Craven
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 2026-10-22read from the page's key and its other keys: 2 from GBIF's key 3173395; none 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 rules
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 4 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…