Plant of the Week 10/09/2006: Punk Tree (Melaleuca quinquenervia)

Plant of the Week 10/09/2006

Melaleuca quinquenervia (Cavanilles) S.T. Blake

Photographed by: Chelsie Vandaveer
Credits: Punk tree photographed at Southern Shopper, Pinellas County, Florida.
Other Information: Olympus C-8080wz

The genus Melaleuca is comprised of somewhere between 170 to 230 species. The vast majority of species are native to Australia, but the range for the genus extends to Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia. The taller, tree-sized species are generally known as 'paperbarks' or 'tea-trees'; the smaller, shrubby species are commonly called 'honey myrtles'. Melaleuca means black-white; possibly a reference to the normally pale trunks blackened by wildfires. The genus is a member of the Myrtaceae, the myrtle family.

The swamp paperbark or punk tree (Melaleuca quinquenervia (Cav.) S.T. Blake) naturally occurs along streams and around swamps in the warm, humid climates of Papua New Guinea, eastern Australia, and New Caledonia. The tree tends to form pure or almost pure stands.

The punk tree is covered in a thick, spongy, white bark that peels off in sheets. The bark smolders, but seldom burns and insulates the interior of the trunk from fire damage.

Punk tree wood is a pinkish to reddish brown. Fine-textured and hard, it is reported to make beautiful cabinetry. But, the wood is seldom worked. It tends to warp while drying. More importantly, the wood contains silica which dulls saws and other tools. Only the most dedicated woodworker won't toss punk tree lumber into a fire.

Punk trees produce spikes of tiny white flowers in autumn (March to July in the Southern Hemisphere). David Lea with Species Bank, Australian Biological Resources Study reports that the flowers "can be shades of green or red". In Florida, the trees flower sporadically through the year with white flowers.

The flowers produce small hard capsules which contain the seeds. The capsules do not release the seeds until the branch dies or is burned. Thomas F. Geary reports that "the capsules may hold seeds for up to 10 years without release." The seeds are tiny; it is estimated that a kilogram (2.2 pounds) has two and a half million seeds.

The tree was introduced to South Florida in the early 1900s to dry up the wetlands making the land suitable for real estate development. It is an experiment that has gone terribly awry. The trees have taken over better than 500,000 acres of the Everglades.

(Compiled from: "The Melaleuca Page", Association of Societies for Growing Australian Plants; "Cypress Mulch, Why kill a tree to grow a flower?", Barbara Waddell and the Pepper Patrol of Ruskin, FL, Susan Johnston, and Mariella Johns Smith, Suncoast Native Plant Society, Inc., a chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society; "Melaleuca quinquenervia", David Lea, Species Bank, Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of the Environment and Heritage, Australian Government and "Melaleuca quinquenervia (Cav.) S.T. Blake", Thomas F. Geary Forestry Consultant, Washington, DC, Reforestation, Nurseries, and Genetics Resources)