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Melaleuca squamea; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2016-11-23

Melaleuca squamea Labill.

Swamp honey myrtle; Swamp melaleuca; Swamp paperbark

Myrtaceae · New South Wales, South Australia +2

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Melaleuca squamea, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMelaleuca squamea, photograph (c) grampianshiker, some rights reserved (CC BY)Melaleuca squamea, photograph (c) grampianshiker, some rights reserved (CC BY)Melaleuca squamea, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMelaleuca squamea, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMelaleuca squamea, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 71 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
3.9°C
Record low 0.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
19°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,081mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
9–42DLI
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 squamea, commonly known as swamp honey-myrtle, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to south eastern parts of Australia, especially Tasmania. It is an erect shrub growing in damp and swampy places with crowded leaves and many heads of pink to purple flowers in spring.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Melaleuca squamea", 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 (806 mm of 1,086 mm) takes 8 months, April to October and December. Mean temperature moves 6.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: October to April and June.

Rain

1,086 mm in the median year at the habitat, 806 mm of it April to October and December. Wettest month August at 122 mm, driest month February at 58 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 682 mm to 2,129 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,081 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,086 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: 9 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 8, 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 3.9 °C, the absolute minimum 0.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 5.7 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 1.4 °C to 9.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 18.8 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 3.9 °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: 60 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 +83 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 squamea through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 19 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 5.7 °C; 1,086 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°frost34.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER0.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 9–42RH 60–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 690 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 °C19 / 16–2419 / 17–2517 / 15–2215 / 12–1913 / 10–1611 / 7–1411 / 7–1311 / 8–1312 / 9–1514 / 11–1716 / 13–2017 / 15–22
Night °C12 / 8–1612 / 8–1612 / 7–1510 / 5–148 / 4–127 / 2–106 / 1–106 / 2–107 / 2–108 / 4–119 / 5–1311 / 7–14
Rain mm69 / 29–12858 / 22–11272 / 33–14285 / 46–16497 / 54–199115 / 68–215119 / 69–237122 / 70–25596 / 60–22890 / 52–20281 / 43–14882 / 43–149
DLI41 / 38–4736 / 33–4328 / 24–3218 / 16–2412 / 10–179 / 8–1411 / 9–1515 / 13–2023 / 20–2932 / 28–3839 / 35–4442 / 38–47
RH %60 / 56–6361 / 56–6461 / 57–6562 / 58–6863 / 60–7064 / 60–7264 / 60–7163 / 59–7062 / 58–6861 / 58–6661 / 57–6460 / 57–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 690 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1488 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 2556:6429 (-37.825, 141.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 0.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 3.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.6 °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 690 distinct grid cells holding 1488 of the 1495 in-range records (3 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2556:6429 (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 -38.00_141.250, lapse-corrected +83 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 137 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, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria · 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-42.617, 146.333 · in the densest population, 914 records (58% 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 1580 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1488 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1495 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1279 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 7 km away. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 85 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 1580 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 squamea, photograph 1did not loadMelaleuca squamea, photograph 2did not loadMelaleuca squamea, photograph 3did not loadMelaleuca squamea, photograph 4did not loadMelaleuca squamea, photograph 5did not loadMelaleuca squamea, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) grampianshiker, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Gaudium glaucescens Myrtaceae Nematolepis squamea Nematolepis squamea Satinwood Photo: CC BY-SA, Ruth PalssonHibbertia procumbens Hibbertia procumbens Spreading Guinea Flower Photo: CC0, author not statedLeptospermum scoparium Leptospermum scoparium Broom Tea-tree Photo: CC BY, Diana StuderEpacris lanuginosa Epacris lanuginosa Woolly-style heath Photo: CC0, author not stated Convolvulus tuguriorum Convolvulaceae

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 Melaleuca ottonis; Melaleuca squamea var. glabra; Myrtoleucodendron squameum. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Myrtaceae
Described by
Labill.
Native to
New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania +1
Wild records
1580 in range · 1279 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; 6 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (6 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 -38.00_141.250, lapse-corrected +83 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 26 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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