Melaleuca quinquenervia

Common Name: melaleuca

Family: Myrtaceae

Common Synonyms: none

USDA Hardiness Zone: 9a-11

Growth Habit: Shrub, Tree

Origin: Tropical Asia, Australasia, Pacific

FISC Category: 1

FDACS Listed Noxious Weed: Yes

Introduction Date: Earliest Florida specimen available vouchered in 1926

IFAS Assessment:

• North: PROHIBITED
• Central: PROHIBITED
• South: PROHIBITED

Description

Melaleuca can easily be distinguished by its white, papery, peeling bark. Sheets of bark can feel like thin styrofoam. The tree can grow to be 35 m high. Leaves are simple, alternate, pale green and have a sweet odor when crushed. Veination is often a pale pink, and leaves are outlined in pale pink. Flowers resemble bottle brushes, feathery and seeming to emerge directly from the stem tips. Fruit are usually in clusters around stem tips, in round, woody capsules.

Habitat

Wet flatwoods and disturbed sites. Central and Southern peninsula

Comments

NA

Control Methods

• Manual: Manual: Pull seedlings and saplings, taking care to remove roots.
• Chemical: Foliar-Low volume spot application of 5% glyphosate (seedlings and saplings only). Aerial application (dog hair stands) of 3 quarts Rodeo + 3 quarts Arsenal + 4 quarts methylated seed oil per acre. Follow-up ground or aerial application may be necessary. Cut stump-10-20% imazapyr, 50-100% glyphosate, OR 40% glyphosate+10% imazapyr. Use of imazapyr product provides more consistent results. Frill and girdle: 20-50% imazapyr OR 40% glyphosate and 10% imazapyr. Lower amounts of imazapyr may be effective.
• Biological: The weevil Oxyops vitiosa, the psyllid Boreioglycaspis melaleucae, and the gall midge Lophodiplosis trifida have all been established in Florida.

Control Notes

NA

References

Langeland, K.A., H.M. Cherry, C.M. McCormick, K.C. Burks. 2008. Identification and Biology of Non-Native Plants in Florida's Natural Areas-Second Edition. IFAS Publication SP 257. University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.

http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/plant-profiles/http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/plant-profiles/ accessed 13 June, 2017

http://davesgarden.com accessed 13 June, 2017

IFAS. 2011. Integrated Management of Nonnative Plants in Natural Areas of Florida. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/WG/WG20900.pdf. Accessed June 13, 2017.