Melaleuca gibbosa

Wiry shrub to 3 m high, glabrous except for fine indumentum on young stems or scattered hairs; bark hard and fissured on old plants. Leaves decussate, more or less sessile, mostly obovate, 2–6 mm long, 1–4 mm wide, obtuse, gland-dotted and generally distinctly 3-nerved on both surfaces, tip recurved. Inflorescence a short spike, to c. 2 cm long, 1–1.5 cm wide; axis sparsely hairy, growing on into a leafy shoot. Flowers in up to 10 pairs per spike, mostly at the base of lateral leafy stems and subtended by leaf-like bracts, terminal or with tip growing into a leafy shoot; hypanthium attached to the stem across a broad base; stamens 8–20 per bundle, pink to purple, claw c. 0.5–1 mm long, free parts of filaments 2.5–5 mm long. Capsules flask-shaped to spherical, c. 4 mm wide, eventually becoming submerged in the swollen leafy stem. Flowers late spring and summer.