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Joyce joined The Tampa Tribune as senior editor for metro in 2005 and later helped launch TBO.com’s continuous news desk. He has worked as an editor and reporter in Arizona, Kentucky, Virginia, Idaho and Stuart, Fla. Email

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Today’s number, zero: Melaleucas on Florida’s list of champion trees

Posted Nov 1, 2009 by Dennis Joyce

Updated Nov 2, 2009 at 10:02 AM

Melaleuca on display at Babe Zaharias Golf Course in Tampa’s Forest Hills.

You’ll find white oak, loblolly pine, tulip tree and many more native plants on our database of Florida’s Champion Trees, but not melaleuca.

Melaleuca is so sinister the University of Florida has a brochure titled “Tame melaleuca: A century of melaleuca invasion in South Florida.”

“First brought to Florida from Australia around 1900,” the brochure says, “melaleuca (MEL-ah-LUKE-ah) found widespread use as an ornamental tree and as a soil stabilizer on levees and spoil islands. It was even used in early attempts to dry up the Everglades.”

You know the rest of the story. Introducing flora or fauna to achieve a goal nature couldn’t manage on its own seldom ends well. Melaleuca, known for its potato smell in spring, ran rampant and crowded out native plants.

It now covers half a million acres in south Florida alone and is illegal to sell, cultivate or even possess.

These trees in Forest Hills must be grandfathered in.

Think happier thoughts at the champion trees database. Plenty of native species still grow tall and strong and you can take a digital walk among them, courtesy of the Florida Division of Forestry.