Prickly paperbark

Melaleuca styphelioides, the prickly-leaved paperbark, is an evergreen tree of the Myrtaceae endemic to eastern Australia, occurring along stream banks and other moist, coastal sites from Nowra in New South Wales northward into Queensland. The tree commonly reaches 15-20 m in height with a dense, rounded canopy and a stout, often crooked trunk clad in characteristic thick, spongy, papery white to light brown bark that peels in large flexible strips. The small leaves are alternately arranged, only 7-15 mm long, ovate to lanceolate, slightly twisted, dark green, leathery, and tipped with a sharp pungent point that gives the species its common name. From late spring into summer the tree bears short cylindrical bottlebrush spikes of cream to white flowers, each with five small petals and many showy stamens fused into bundles, followed by small woody capsules that persist on the branches.