page_title: Melaleuca pityoides
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Melaleuca pityoides / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Melaleuca pityoides growing near a stream crossing Carpet Snake Creek in the Torrington State Conservation Area
context_page_description: Melaleuca pityoides, commonly known as alpine bottlebrush, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the higher areas of south eastern Australia. It is a shrub, often occurring in dense thickets, with hard bark, silvery-grey new growth, almost cylindrical leaves and spikes of flowers that are usually a shade of yellow.
context_section_description: Melaleuca pityoides is a shrub growing to 3 m (10 ft) high and wide, with hard, grey bark. Its leaves are arranged alternately and are 12–24 mm (0.5–0.9 in) long, 0.5–2.5 mm (0.02–0.1 in) wide, flat to almost cylindrical in cross section, very narrow elliptic to egg-shaped and end with a sharp point. The leaf veins and oil glands are indistinct. The young leaves and branches are often densely covered with silky hairs.
  
  The flowers are a shade of golden-yellow to cream, sometimes tinged with pink or green and are arranged in short spikes on the ends of branches which continue to grow after flowering. The spikes are 18–25 mm (0.7–1 in) in diameter and 100 mm (4 in) long with 10 to 15 individual flowers. The petals are 2.1–3.4 mm (0.08–0.1 in) long and fall off as the flower ages and there are 32-52 stamens in each flower. Flowering occurs from October to February, sometimes in other months and is followed by fruit which are woody capsules, 3.2–5.1 mm (0.1–0.2 in) long.
caption: M. pityoides (habit) in the Torrington State Conservation Area
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