Melaleuca exuvia

Melaleuca exuvia is a large shrub growing to 6 m (20 ft) tall with rough, pinkish-grey bark which peels annually in a pattern known as minni ritchi to reveal new, smooth salmon-pink bark. It often has more than one stem and a crown up to 9 m (30 ft) across. Its leaves are erect, cylinder-shaped, linear to narrow elliptic and circular in cross-section, narrowing to a usually hooked end. They are 7–30 mm (0.3–1 in) long and 0.6–1.3 mm (0.02–0.05 in) in diameter.[1][2]

The flowers are white to yellow and arranged in heads containing 3 to 8 groups of flowers in threes. The petals are oval in shape, 1–1.4 mm (0.04–0.06 in) long and the stamens are arranged in five bundles around the flower, each bundle containing 5 to 8 stamens. Flowering occurs in late spring and is followed by fruit which are woody capsules 4.5–5 mm (0.18–0.20 in) long, often retained on the stems for many years.[1][2]

The first formal description of this plant was made in 2004 by Lyndley Craven and Brendan Lepschi in Australian Systematic Botany[3] from a specimen found at Key Rocks near Norseman.[4] The specific epithet (exuvia) is from the Latin word meaning "cast skin" or "slough", referring to the unusual way this species sheds its bark.[1]

This melaleuca occurs in a small area in and between the Lort River, Lake Johnson and Queen Victoria Spring districts[1][2] in the Coolgardie, Great Victoria Desert and Mallee biogeographic regions, growing sandy soils near drainage channels and the edge of salt lakes.[5]

Melaleuca exuvia is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife.[5]