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Melaleuca orophila; photograph Melburnian, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BYMelburnian, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Melaleuca orophila Craven

Myrtaceae · South Australia

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

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Melaleuca orophila, photograph User:Zenwort, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsMelaleuca orophila, photograph User:Zenwort, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 3 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
0.4°C
Record low -2.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
393mm
8 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
16–51DLI
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 orophila, commonly known as needle bottlebrush or Flinders Ranges bottlebrush, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the eastern part of South Australia. (Some Australian state herbaria continue to use the name Callistemon teretifolius). It is a medium-sized shrub with sharp-pointed, needle-like leaves and bright red bottlebrush flower spikes.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Melaleuca orophila", 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 (296 mm of 383 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 14.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

Rain

383 mm in the median year at the habitat, 296 mm of it May to December. Wettest month June at 46 mm, driest months (2 at 21 mm). Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 229 mm to 523 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 393 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 383 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 51 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 52).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 0.4 °C, the absolute minimum -2.1 °C, 81 frost nights in 44 years, 1.8 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 4.6 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 3.4 °C to 6.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.0 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.4 °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: 48 to 59% 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 +187 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 orophila through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 4.6 °C; 383 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.-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost41.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-2.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075mm rainDLI 16–51RH 48–59%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 103 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 °C30 / 27–3230 / 27–3126 / 24–2822 / 20–2317 / 16–1814 / 13–1513 / 12–1415 / 13–1619 / 16–2022 / 19–2425 / 23–2728 / 25–30
Night °C17 / 15–1917 / 15–1915 / 13–1611 / 10–138 / 7–96 / 5–75 / 3–65 / 4–78 / 6–910 / 8–1213 / 11–1515 / 13–18
Rain mm22 / 19–2721 / 17–2721 / 17–2523 / 13–3535 / 19–5146 / 19–7143 / 19–6942 / 14–6838 / 18–5632 / 18–4430 / 23–3730 / 24–34
DLI51 / 50–5246 / 45–4739 / 36–4129 / 26–3220 / 18–2316 / 14–1917 / 16–2022 / 21–2632 / 29–3641 / 39–4447 / 45–4850 / 49–51
RH %48 / 42–5248 / 44–5249 / 45–5452 / 48–5656 / 54–6059 / 57–6358 / 56–6256 / 51–6053 / 48–5851 / 45–5549 / 44–5349 / 43–53
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 103 grid cells holding the 297 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 2438:6367 (-31.925, 138.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -2.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.9 °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 103 distinct grid cells holding 297 of the 297 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2438:6367 (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 -32.00_138.125, lapse-corrected +187 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 411 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.

This species has no GBIF key of its own. Its records are GBIF's under the key of the name Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 3173478 (Callistemon teretifolius F.Muell., 525 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeSouth 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-33.124, 138.176 · in the densest population, 209 records (68% 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 309 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 297 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 263 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 4 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 12 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 3173478 (Callistemon teretifolius F.Muell.): Kew's file holds it as Callistemon teretifolius F.Muell. (synonym under Melaleuca orophila Craven); 525 records, from GBIF's download.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 309 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 orophila, photograph 1did not loadMelaleuca orophila, photograph 2did not load

Photographs: User:Zenwort, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2).

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

Senecio megaglossus Superb groundsel Brachyscome paludicola Brachyscome paludicola Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Jared Shorma Senecio behrianus Asteraceae Myriophyllum papillosum Myriophyllum papillosum Haloragaceae Photo: CC BY, Richard HartlandCentipeda cunninghamii Centipeda cunninghamii Common Sneezeweed Photo: CC BY, Will CornwellAtriplex semibaccata Atriplex semibaccata Australian saltbush Photo: CC BY, Marc Whitaker

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 teretifolius. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Myrtaceae
Described by
Craven
Native to
South Australia
Wild records
309 in range · 263 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
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Melaleuca orophila Craven (plant_name_id 347381), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21this species has no GBIF key of its own; its records are read under GBIF's keys for the names Kew's file holds as this plant, never by a name matched; GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 525 records of GBIF's key 3173478, Callistemon teretifolius F.Muell. (Kew's file holds it as Callistemon teretifolius F.Muell. (synonym under Melaleuca orophila Craven)): the GBIF download; 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 -32.00_138.125, lapse-corrected +187 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 77085516-1, POWO 77085516-1
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
Wikimedia Commons commons 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 13 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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