Melaleuca cardiophylla

Melaleuca cardiophylla is known as the Umbrella Bush and is a small to medium, erect to spreading shrub, potentially reahcing 4 metres tall and spreading just as widely or more.

It tends to have intertwined branches.

It is endemic to the western parts of Western Australia, growing very close to the coast, from Perth to Exmouth, with some inland records east of Coral Bay (Barlee Range Nature Reserve).

It forms part of coastal shrubland and heathland, usually on sandy soils but also limestone-based soils.

Melaleuca spp. can present with simple and alternate or opposite leaves. In this species, leaves are alternate to spiral, somewhat clustered, stem-clasping and heart shaped (cordate) (hence the species name), to about 9 mm long and 7 mm wide, mid to dark green in colour.

In Melaleuca species, flowers are usually arranged in spikes or heads. Within the head or spike, the flowers are often in groups of two or three. Flowers have five sepals (sometimes fused into a ring of tissue) and five petals which are typically small and do not persist on the flower for long.
Like many other Myrtaceae genera, the flowers are conspicuously staminate with each flower having many stamens surrounding one carpel. The stamens are typically fused into five separate bundles (staminal claws) which each bundle sitting opposite a petal (a generally useful identifying feature for the genus to distinguish it from Callistemon). Melaleuca flowers do not have pedicels (sessile).

In this species, white flowers are carried in small clusters of up to 5, with clusters extending along the branches in spikes of up to 5 cm or more. This flower arrangement is similar in appearance to those of the better known M. thymifolia. The flowering period is variable but occurs between October and February. The specimen illustrated flowered in mid-January.

The fruit is a capsule. In this species, it is comparatively large, to 10 mm in diameter and woody.