Melaleuca argentea
Melaleuca argentea, commonly known as the silver cadjeput, silver-leaved paperbark, silver cajuput, or mardderr in the Kunwinjku language, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to northern Australia. It is a common tree along river banks or around swamps in the tropics. It has papery bark and weeping foliage and has been the subject of important scientific research.
Description
Melaleuca argentea is a tree usually to but sometimes to. The leaves are arranged alternately along the branches and are elliptic, straight or sickle-shaped, long, about wide and have 5 to 9 longitudinal veins. Mature leaves are pale, silvery green and the young growth is soft, silvery and covered with silky soft hairs. The leaves are aromatic when crushed.The flowers are arranged in spikes on the ends of branches which continue to grow after flowering, sometimes also in the upper leaf axils. The spikes contain 5 to 20 groups of flowers in threes and are up to in diameter. The petals are about long and fall off as the flower ages. The stamens are in 5 bundles around the flower with 7 to 9 stamens per bundle. Flowering occurs in most months of the year and is followed by fruit which are woody, cup-shaped to cylindrical capsules, in diameter and loosely spaced along the branches.
Taxonomy and naming
Melaleuca argentea was first formally described in 1918 by William Fitzgerald in "Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Western Australia" from specimens he collected from the "Isdell, Charnley, Fitzroy, Ord, Denham Rivers, etc." The specific epithet is from the Latin argenteus, meaning "silvery".Melaleuca argentea is known as mardderr in the Kunwinjku language and kumardderr, means "at the silver-leaved paperbark" and takes its name from this tree.