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Melaleuca nervosa; photograph (c) Kate Brown, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Kate Brown, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2026-07-17

Melaleuca nervosa (Lindl.) Cheel

Yellow-barked Paperbark; Fibrebark

Myrtaceae · New Guinea, Northern Territory +2

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Melaleuca nervosa, photograph (c) Kate Brown, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Melaleuca nervosa, photograph (c) Kate Brown, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Melaleuca nervosa, photograph (c) Kate Brown, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Melaleuca nervosa, photograph (c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY)Melaleuca nervosa, photograph (c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY)Melaleuca nervosa, photograph (c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) 49 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
11.7°C
Record low 7.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
35°C
Oct and Nov at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,089mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
31–45DLI
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 summers: the rain comes June to September (December to March at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Melaleuca nervosa, commonly known as fibrebark, is a shrub or tree in the myrtle family Myrtaceae and is endemic to northern Australia. (Some Australian state herbaria use the name Callistemon nervosus.) It is a narrow-leaved, tropical paperbark with yellow-green and red-flowering forms. As with some other melaleucas, this species has many uses to Indigenous Australians.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Melaleuca nervosa", 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 summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (859 mm of 1,050 mm) falls in December to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 28.0 °C against a yearly mean of 26.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: June to September.

Rain

1,050 mm in the median year at the habitat, 859 mm of it December to March. Wettest month January at 266 mm, driest month August at 2 mm; 2 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 635 mm to 1,729 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,089 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,050 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: 31 to 45 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 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 11.7 °C, the absolute minimum 7.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 16.4 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 11.1 °C to 19.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 35.3 °C in October (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.7 °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: 49 to 64% 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 -19 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 nervosa through the yearWarmest months October and November, mean daily high 35 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 16.4 °C; 1,050 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°50°40.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER7.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 31–45RH 49–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 1168 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 °C32 / 29–3532 / 29–3432 / 28–3432 / 27–3430 / 24–3328 / 22–3128 / 22–3130 / 23–3333 / 26–3535 / 28–3735 / 29–3733 / 30–36
Night °C25 / 22–2625 / 22–2624 / 21–2522 / 18–2520 / 15–2317 / 12–2116 / 11–2017 / 12–2020 / 15–2323 / 18–2525 / 20–2625 / 22–26
Rain mm266 / 130–407250 / 139–377171 / 58–30256 / 22–12814 / 6–455 / 1–313 / 1–242 / 1–247 / 2–2527 / 14–6477 / 47–153172 / 88–299
DLI38 / 34–4336 / 32–3936 / 34–3936 / 31–3834 / 26–3631 / 25–3433 / 26–3538 / 31–3942 / 39–4345 / 42–4744 / 42–4741 / 37–45
RH %63 / 56–6664 / 57–6761 / 53–6456 / 48–6252 / 45–6050 / 45–5949 / 43–5950 / 42–5951 / 42–6053 / 44–6056 / 48–6160 / 52–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 1168 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1630 records in those cells; 4 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 2055:6278 (-12.775, 133.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 7.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.5 °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 1168 distinct grid cells holding 1630 of the 1634 in-range records (4 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2055:6278 (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 -13.00_133.750, lapse-corrected -19 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 263 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 Guinea, Northern Territory, Queensland, 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-12.86, 131.208 · in the densest population, 618 records (34% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1802 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1630 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1634 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1760 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 168 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 of the 1802 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 nervosa, photograph 1did not loadMelaleuca nervosa, photograph 2did not loadMelaleuca nervosa, photograph 3did not loadMelaleuca nervosa, photograph 4did not loadMelaleuca nervosa, photograph 5did not loadMelaleuca nervosa, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Kate Brown, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

Uraria lagopodioides Uraria lagopodioides Pink uraria Photo: CC BY, smathichongVigna radiata Vigna radiata Mung bean Photo: CC BY, Bharat GodambeIpomoea eriocarpa Ipomoea eriocarpa Morningglory Photo: CC BY, JoshThysanotus chinensis Thysanotus chinensis Chinese Fringe Lily Photo: CC BY, yatesyFimbristylis littoralis Fimbristylis littoralis Lesser fimbristylis Photo: CC BY, WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁Grevillea dryandri Grevillea dryandri Dryander's grevillea Photo: CC BY, yatesy

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

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Myrtaceae
Described by
(Lindl.) Cheel
Native to
New Guinea, Northern Territory, Queensland +1
Wild records
1802 in range · 1760 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; 5 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (3 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 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 -13.00_133.750, lapse-corrected -19 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 28 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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