Herb 3.5–30 cm high. Leaves linear, 1.5–8.5 cm long, 2–5.5 mm wide, 4–11-nerved, acuminate. Peduncle to 30 cm long, with 4–7 ribs. Sheath 12–60 mm long. Flower heads hemispherical to globular, 3–6 mm long, 3.5–5.5 mm wide. Involucral bracts straw-yellow, obovate to elliptic to broadly elliptic, 1.75–2 mm long, 0.9–1.5 mm wide, obtuse, glabrous, reflexed at maturity. Floral bracts hyaline to black or with hyaline base, obovate to oblanceolate, 1.5–2.5 mm long, 0.6–1.1 mm wide, acute or obtuse and mucronate, glabrous or pubescent with sparse white hairs at apex. Receptacle sparsely hairy to densely pilose, conical. Male flowers 1.3–2.2 mm long; sepals (2 or) 3, fused but split on one side to form a spathe which is sometimes 2-or 3-lobed, rarely apparently 2 free, black, 1.25– 2.4 mm long, 0.5–0.75 mm wide, acute to obtuse, pubescent with white hairs in apical fringe; petals 3, hyaline, equal or slightly dimorphic with one larger, acute, pubescent with white hairs in apical fringe; stamens 6; anthers black, included. Female flowers: sepals 3, rarely 2, black or rarely hyaline, dimorphic, laterals navicular and geniculate, 1.1–1.75 mm long, 0.2–0.35 mm wide, acute, pubescent with white, hairs in apical fringe or marginal, rarely reduced to a few marginal hairs; median sepal linear, 1–1.3 mm long, 0.1–0.2 mm wide, acute, pubescent with white, marginal hairs; petals 3, hyaline, equal or rarely one slightly larger, elliptic, 1–1.6 mm long, 0.16–0.5 mm wide, acute, pubescent with white hairs in apical fringe and dense hyaline hairs adaxially; ovary 3-locular. Seeds 0.4–0.53 mm long, 0.3–0.38 mm wide; epidermal cells more or less isodiametric, peg-like projections on both transverse and longitudinal walls.
Melaleuca swamps, springs and soaks, margins of lakes and lagoons, in peatland, bog communities and swampy places, alongside roadside drains; usually on sandy soils.
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