Talk:Leptospermum
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I had ever understood that the tea tree was Melaleuca rather than Leptospermum. The essential oil --- sometimes called cajeput --- is sold here as a sort of minor external antiseptic, and Melaleuca alternifolia is the usual name given. Has it been reclassified or assigned to a different genus? -- Smerdis of Tlön 07:34, 9 Sep 2003 (EDT)
- No reclassification that I know of - just some ambiguity. (Where is Tlön?) "Tea tree" is a common name based on a function. Apparently there are two "tea trees" - one being Leptospermum, the other Melaleuca. Here is the US, where I live, "tea tree" always means Leptospermum. This is the convention of the Sunset Western Garden Book (which calls Melaleuca the "paperbark tree"). In Australia and New Zealand, either meaning is possible, and in aromatherapy, etc. it seems that the "tea tree" == Melaleuca meaning predominates. Where "tea tree" == Melaleuca, the term "manuka" is (sometimes) used for (some varieties of) Leptospermum.
- Melaleuca and Leptospermum are somewhat similar in appearance, although according to Sunset again, Melaleuca also resembles "bottlebrush" and is sometimes called "bottlebrush", though more usually "bottlebrush" means Callistemon.
- And I would imagine there is more than one genus called "paperbark tree". Sounds like time for some disambiguation with global sensitivity. : NuclearWinner 13:22, 9 Sep 2003 (EDT)
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- I'm also in the USA, although in a place where few myrtles or eucalypts grow. "Tea tree" is familiar to me most notably as the source of "tea tree oil," which I put on my feet after I go swimming to keep them clean. This is inevitably credited to Melaleuca. We do have a stub at Melaleuca, so perhaps it ought to be mentioned there.
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- BTW, Tlön refers to Jorge Luis Borges story Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius," the true secret history of the Wikipedia project. The "impostor Smerdis" figures there as well. -- Smerdis of Tlön 19:51, 10 Sep 2003 (UTC)
The above comments are correct in essence ... er ... no pun intended. ;) It's still Leptospermum. Melaleucas are also very common in Australia though, and look rather similar. Common names don't really work very well with Australian flora (i.e., there is often not a 1:1 relationship between the plant genus and the usual common name) but generally speaking, melaleucas are called "paperbarks". The reality is that these days, the best-accepted common name for Melaleuca is "melaleuca". (The same could be said for quite a few others, by the way, though not Leptospermum.) Tea-tree is Leptospermum. Melaleucas are not tea-trees, nor are they bottlebrushes, they are paperbarks. The essential oil makers have it wrong, simple as that. However, the error is so well-established and so widespread that it needs to be mentioned in both articles. Tannin 23:37, 10 Sep 2003 (UTC)
