TOTEM POLES

(Melaleuca decussata)

(Photos: E. Cousins. Leaves and flower; fruits )

Like purple flowers? Maybe this melaleuca is the shrub for you! Look at those pretty little brushes.  Around Cape Jervis, these shrubs grow to a couple of metres tall, with a slender growth habit. In a garden situation though they can be pruned to keep them more rounded, and the foliage green and thick. The leaves are small (about 15mm long) and grey-green, providing a nice contrast with those purple brushes of flowers that appear in springtime. Look at the placement of the leaves on the stems: two pairs sit at right angles to each other, forming an X. (That’s where the decussata  in the name comes from, Latin for ‘shaped like an X’.) The fruits containing the seeds are those woody grey-brown bumps you can see embedded in the stems in the second photo. Also bird attracting, what is not to like about this shrub?