Melaleuca uncinata

Melaleuca uncinata, the broom honey-myrtle or broombush, is an erect, multi-stemmed evergreen shrub of the Myrtaceae endemic to inland southern Australia, typically growing 1.5-4 m tall in dense, broom-like thickets and occasionally to 6 m. The bark on older stems is hard, fibrous and greyish-brown, peeling in thin papery strips on younger branches. Leaves are alternate, narrowly linear to terete, 1-4 cm long and 0.5-1.5 mm wide, sharply pointed and often slightly hooked at the apex (uncinate, hence the specific epithet), grey-green to dull green with embedded oil glands and held erect on short petioles. The inflorescences are dense, globular, terminal heads 1-2 cm in diameter formed from many small flowers; the heads later become overgrown as the shoot continues to elongate. Each flower has a small calyx tube with five short lobes, five tiny white to pale yellow petals soon shed, and conspicuous bundles of bright pale yellow stamens 4-6 mm long fused into five claws giving the head a soft pompom appearance. Fruits are small, hard, cup-shaped woody capsules 2.5-4 mm wide tightly clustered along the stems, persisting for many years and releasing fine seeds after fire.