Melaleuca viridiflora

Melaleuca viridiflora
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Myrtales
Family:	Myrtaceae
Genus:	Melaleuca
Species:	M. viridiflora
Binomial name
Melaleuca viridiflora

Red-flowered form of M. viridflora

Melaleuca viridiflora, known as broad-leaved paperbark, is a small tree native to woodlands, swamps and streams of monsoonal northern Australia and Papua New Guinea.

The leaves are thick, broadly elliptic, aromatic and 7–19 cm long. Flowers are cream, yellow, yellow-green or occasionally red spikes, 5–10 cm long.^[1] Fruits are woody capsules containing numerous fine seed. The bark is papery.

Uses

Foliage and capsules of M. viridflora

M. viridiflora is used by Indigenous Australians for multiple uses. The bark is peeled off in layers and is used for shelter, bedding, containers, storing and cooking food, fire tinder, water craft, fish traps and wrapping corpses.

In traditional medicine, an infusion from leaves was drunk, inhaled or used for bathing to treat coughs, colds, congestion, headache, fever and influenza.^[2]

A methyl cinnamate/ocimene chemotype of M. viridiflora from western Cape York is used as a bushfood spice, and is called kitcha-kontoo.

The essential oil is an ingredient in a "natural" haemorrhoid treatment.^[3]

Distribution

M. viridflora bark

The species occurs in New Guinea and tropical areas of Australia, including northern parts of Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland.^[4]

Plants distributed in south-eastern Florida in 1900 under the name Melaleuca viridiflora have been subsequently identified as Melaleuca quinquenervia.^[5]

References