Melaleuca cajuputi

Melaleuca cajuputi is usually a medium to large tree, often growing to 35 metres (100 ft) and sometimes to 46 metres (200 ft) with grey, brownish or whitish papery bark. The new growth is silky-hairy, becoming glabrous as it matures. The leaves are arranged alternately 40–140 millimetres (2–6 in) long and 7.5–60 millimetres (0.3–2 in) wide, tapering at both ends. The flowers are white, cream or greenish-yellow mostly in dense spikes at the ends of the branches which continue to grow after flowering but also often in the axils of the upper leaves. The spikes contain 8 to 20 groups of flowers, each group with three flowers. The stamens are grouped in five bundles around the flower, each bundle containing 6 to 18 stamens. Timing of flowering varies with subspecies. The fruits are woody, cup-shaped capsules clustered loosely along the branches, each fruit 2–2.8 millimetres (0.08–0.1 in) long.

Melaleuca cajuputi subsp. cajuputi occurs in the Dampier Peninsula, Calder River, Fitzroy Crossing district in the Central Kimberley biogeographic zone in Western Australia, the northern part of the Northern Territory, Ambon Island, Buru Island of Maluku, and East Timor. It grows in woodland, vine forest, gallery forest and savannah forest, on clayey and peaty loam. Melaleuca cajuputi subsp. cumingiana (Turcz.) Barlow occurs in Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia (Sumatra, West Java and south-west Kalimantan). It grows in coastal swamp forest. In Thailand, the species is known as White Samet. Melaleuca cajuputi subsp. platyphylla Barlow occurs in New Guinea, the Torres Strait islands and north-western Queensland as far south as Cairns. It grows in similar habitats to subsp. cajuputi.