From a distance, melaleuca trees are attractive, with creamy white blossoms and a papery bark.
But move in for a closer look and, ugh, that smell.
“I live near them and they drive me crazy,” said Barbara Gold, of Tree Movers Inc., a landscaping firm in Lake Worth.
Many melaleuca detractors rank the tree, now in bloom and already held in low esteem in Florida as a water-guzzling invader of the Everglades, among the most odiferously offensive of plants.
Such consensus dissolves, though, when it comes to describing the melaleuca odor.
Gold says it smells like “instant mashed potatoes with meat tenderizer.”
Palm Beach County Master Gardener Sharon Kavner likens the odor to “turpentine” — when sniffed at close range.
“From a distance, it smells more like musk,” she said.
A “sewage facility” comes to mind for Broward County agricultural extension agent Robert Pardl.
Then there is the other camp: Those who don’t mind the odor at all.
“Some people think it smells a little bit like honey,” said county Urban Horticulturalist Gene Joyner, who holds the same opinion.
He agreed that melaleuca, brought to Florida from Australia years ago to help drain wetlands, emits “a very strong, pungent odor” but says “I don’t find it offensive.”
The strong odor is prevalent when large groups of melaleucas happen to flower at the same time, Joyner said. That occurs roughly three or four times a year — in early spring, early summer, later summer and late fall, he said.
Individual trees, however, can bloom out of sync with other ones virtually anytime,Joyner said.
Heavy rainfall often will bring out melaleuca blossoms, which remain on a tree for a couple of weeks at a time, Joyner said.
Those blossoms violate more than olfactory sensibilities. Many people claim to be allergic to the trees, blaming them for runny or clogged noses and sneeziness.
But that, too, is subject to debate.
“There is no proof that (melaleuca) does cause allergies; it is not a documentable fact,” said Palm Beach County forester Mike Greenstein.
But “People don’t want to hear that,” he said.
Daniel Tucker, a West Palm Beach doctor who treats allergies, disagreed.
“There are a zillion people around here that will tell you flat out that melaleuca bothers them,” Tucker said. “I’m inclined to side with the majority.”
Any doubt about melaleuca being at the root of some respiratory allergies probably stems from the fact that it does not produce an airborne pollen, Tucker said.
But fibers and tiny seeds from the plant can act as an respiratory irritant, too, he said.
Skin tests to detect allergies have confirmed that certain people have an adverse reaction to melaleuca, Tucker said.
For those who dread the plant in bloom, there is good news.
A powerful anti-melaleuca movement is afoot in Florida. State law prohibits anyone from planting melaleuca. And the federal government is considering importing a nemesis to help eradicate the plant — an Australian insect that can kill it.
Yet even amid such strong anti-melaleuca sentiment, there are still those who praise the species for what may be its most redeeming trait: good looks.
“If pruned properly, some trees can look magnificent,” said Mike Zimmerman, president of Zimmerman Tree Service in West Palm Beach.
Tucker thinks melaleucas are rather eye-appealing, too.
As for that odor, “It smells a little bit like medicine, if you want to know the truth,” he said.
MELALEUCA FACTS
— DESCRIPTION: A narrow tree, sometimes classified as a weed, that can grow
up to 50 feet tall. The melaleuca has a thin trunk and peeling, papery bark which is white, soft, thin and layered.
— PROBLEMS: The melaleuca soaks up water like a sponge and is devastating some areas of the Everglades. It is depleting the Biscayne Aquifer, South Florida’s primary water source.
— ORIGIN: Australia. Imported to South Florida in the early 1900s to dry up the swamps.
— ENEMIES: It is controlled in Australia by caterpillars and insects, but in South Florida, it has proven virtually impossible to kill.
—- Compiled by staff researcher Debby Bradford
SOURCE:Sun-Sentinel files
