ABSTRACT
“We know what plant X is. Why should we have to worry about its scientific name?” Well, sometimes calling a plant X is neither sufficiently precise to enable us to communicate unambiguously nor to find the information that we seek in the ever-burgeoning literature with which we must cope. Australians use the name tea tree to refer to many indigenous species of Leptospermum, Melaleuca and Neofabricia (Wrigley and Fagg 1993). These three genera belong to the family Myrtaceae so they do have something in common. Clearly though, the use of tea tree by itself will not suffice as the only name for the subject of this book and we must use its scientific name, Melaleuca alternifolia, to distinguish it unambiguously from all the other tea trees.
