Beaufortia?

Discussion in 'Plants: Identification' started by pvaraujo, Apr 16, 2007.

  1. pvaraujo

    pvaraujo Member

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    Porto - Portugal
    I am one of the three contributors to "Dias com Arvores", a portuguese blog about trees and other plants. Recently we have come across a shrub in Porto's City Park that we haven't noticed before, although judging by its size (nearly 2 metres high) it must have been there for years. It is surely a Myrtaceae and very much resembles a Callistemon. By browsing through an Australian plant database, we have come to a tentative classification - Beaufortia aestiva - but have serious doubts as to its correctness: flowers are yellow instead of the usual red, and no good photos of plants in this genus are readily found on-line.

    Can anyone help in confirming or correcting this identification?

    You can look up the photos here (with a brief explanation - in portuguese - written by Maria Carvalho). Should you want to download the photos with higher resolution for a possible new series on Australian plants in BPotD, please go here.

    Thank you.
    Paulo Araujo
     
    Last edited: Apr 16, 2007
  2. TonyR

    TonyR Active Member

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    I think I can safely say it's not a Beaufortia but a Melaleuca; also that it's probably one of the Western Australian species of that genus, of which there are almost 200! A number of them have dense spikes of lemon-yellow flowers like yours, but looking through two fairly lavishly illustrated books I could not spot any with leaves quite like it (books are Holliday: A field guide to Melaleucas; and Wrigley & Fagg: Bottlebrushes, paperbarks & tea trees). But then neither reference is comprehensive for the genus, at least for illustrations.

    Leaves are important in identifying melaleucas, including their size, shape, veins, hairs, and particularly their arrangement on the stem: opposite in many, in whorls of 3 or 4 in some, spiral in many others.

    If you can't get anywhere with it here you could try sending these pics plus some better closeups of leaves to the Western Australian Herbarium in Perth. Their email address is herbarium@dec.wa.gov.au
     
  3. pvaraujo

    pvaraujo Member

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    Thank you TonyR for your reply and suggestions. I shall certainly contact the Western Australian Herbarium if this discussion proves inconclusive.

    There are two or three species of Melaleuca in Portuguese parks and gardens - the most common are Melaleuca linariifolia and Melaleuca armillaris (a specimen of this one can be seen peeping behind our shrub in one of the photos). It was because of the leaves (quite hard, in contrast to the soft leaves of the Melaleucas we are familiar with) that we did not expect this shrub to be a Melaleuca. Anyway, if you go to this page and choose to view the image in its original size, you have quite a good close-up of the leaves and flowers.

    Paulo Araujo
     
  4. pvaraujo

    pvaraujo Member

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    Just for the record, it appears that Tony was right: this shrub is not a Beaufortia at all but a Melaleuca. Most likely it is a Melaleuca diosmifolia, a native of Western Australia, of which a picture appears on page 408 of Australian Native Plants (5th edition) by J. W. Wrigley & Murray Fagg. This plant enjoys the dubious honour of being listed as a pest in its native country (at least in SE Australia): see here for details. In Portugal we have much more than our fair share of Australian invasive plants, but most of them are Acacias and so far as I know no Melaleucas have yet been black-listed.
     

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