Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various trees or shrubs of the genus Melaleuca, native chiefly to Australia, having aromatic leaves containing essential oils and usually papery white bark.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A genus of plants of the natural order Myrtaceæ, the tribe Leptospermeæ, and the subtribe Euleptospermeæ.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun botany Any member of the
genus Melaleuca ofshrubs andtrees in themyrtle family.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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That work included planting natives such as melaleuca quinqueneruia to improve approaches to Pacific Paradise.
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Between scoops of dirt George rested his body against the melaleuca tree that stood post to Hamilton's grave.
Poor, Dead Hamilton 2010
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A melaleuca can be killed by herbicides, but six months later thousands of seedlings will sprout in its place from the dead tree's capsule-protected seeds, making it difficult to control.
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Today, more than 450,000 acres of the Everglades and the tropical wetlands of south Florida have been taken over by the melaleuca.
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Its natural ability to fill in wetlands with leaf litter, its fire-resilient qualities during the dry fall and winter, and its prolific seed production made the melaleuca seem like an ideal choice.
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This scenario is the equivalent of what's happening in the Everglades today because of the invasion of the exotic, or nonindigenous, Australian melaleuca trees.
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Thanks to the pepper and melaleuca, the native muhly grass prairies, sawgrass marshes, mangrove stands and buttonwood groves that give the 'glades their unique character are under siege.
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But the search for an insect species that targets only the melaleuca is expensive and timeconsuming.
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The Australian melaleuca tree, introduced into south Florida in 1906 and planted as windbreaks and fence rows, has invaded half a million Everglades acres and was taking over an additional 50 acres every day.
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The thirsty melaleuca was originally brought in early in this century to turn the "" wastelands '' of the Everglades into valuable timber forests.
MaryW commented on the word melaleuca
David Kushner, Alligator Candy: A Memoir (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016), ch. 14.May 15, 2016