Melaleuca
Melaleuca, a genus within the Myrtleaceae family, encompasses approximately 300 species of shrubs and trees commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles, bottlebrushes or tea-trees. They are characterised by clusters of protruding brightly coloured stamens resembling a cleaning brush— hence bottlebrush; tea trees — alternatively ti-trees — refer to the use of leaves of a shrub from the genus as a replacement for tea during James Cook's Endeavour voyage.
Melaleucas range in size from small shrubs to trees up to 35 metres in height and are found in a wide variety of habitats from swamps and bogs to sandy soils or the edges of saltpans.
The name is derived from the Ancient Greek μέλας (mélas: "dark" or "black") and λευκός (leukós: "white") apparently because one of the first specimens described had fire-blackened white bark.
