How long do melaleuca trees live

The broad leafed paper bark is a wonderful feature tree for any garden with its gorgeous peeling bark and the bonus of autumn flowers that are also attractive to birds.

But in Sydney's Centennial Park, where we filmed our segment, the mass planting of Meuleleuca quinquenervia produces a breathtaking result. Fri pm, Rpt Sun pm. Share Facebook Twitter Mail. The trees are robust and regenerate quickly after this first harvest. Well, you can! True tea — from the Camellia sinensis plant — can be grown in your garden if you live in a warm climate zone 8 or warmer , or in a container in your home if you live in a cooler area.

There's just one catch, though: it'll be three years before you can start harvesting leaves to make tea! Camellia sinensis is a species of evergreen shrub or small tree whose leaves and leaf buds are used to produce tea. It is of the genus Camellia Chinese:?? Common names include " tea plant ", " tea shrub", and " tea tree ".

Water the tea plant about once weekly. Supply approximately 2 inches of water so the soil is moist throughout the root zone. If the soil dries out quickly during dry weather, water twice weekly. Melaleuca trees grow quickly, typically feet per year, in disturbed wet pine flatwoods, marshes and swamps.

This nonnative tree is rapidly displacing native cypress and sawgrass in the Everglades. Melaleuca can flower five times per year. Tea plants are native to East Asia, and probably originated in the borderlands of north Burma and southwestern China. Chinese small leaf type tea C. How does Tea Tree Oil work? The chemicals in tea tree oil may kill bacteria and fungus, and reduce allergic skin reactions by decreasing swelling or inflammation.

Growing regions The tea tree is endemic to the coastal region of eastern Australia , from Port Macquarie in New South Wales through to Stanthorpe in south east Queensland. It is commercially farmed in this region and on the Atherton Tableland of Queensland. In that country, melaleuca is well-known, planted in parks, valued by beekeepers, attractive to birds and bats.

In fact, because of development, melaleuca trees in some parts of Australia are the subject of conservation efforts. In other places, there are dense forests of melaleuca, just as there were when Europeans first arrived there.

In Florida, however, melaleuca is a pest, especially in the Everglades and surrounding areas, where the trees grow into immense forests, virtually eliminating all other vegetation. Melaleuca grows in terrestrial as well as in completely aquatic situations.

Melaleuca flowers are usually arranged in spikes or heads. Within the head or spike, the flowers are often in groups of two or three, each flower or group having a papery bract at its base. Most melaleucas are endemic to Australia. Melaleucas are found in a wide variety of habitats. Many are adapted for life in swamps and boggy places, while others thrive in the poorest of sandy soils or on the edge of saltpans.

Some have a wide distribution and are common whilst others are rare and endangered.