“The legendary Princess Eelemani of the Bundjalung people was the Johnny Appleseed of tea tree oil. In the legend of Eelemani we learn of a beautiful princess who has to leave her true lover and travel through the bushland of coastal New South Wales. The journey was long and the forest trail was unknown to Eelemani. She was concerned that the return to her loved one and family would be difficult. Eelemani was no ordinary princess and so she spoke to the Gods of the earth and planets and was rewarded with special seeds that were to be sown along the trails. As Eelemani walked through the forests, the bell birds called reassuringly and willie wagtails followed protectively through their territory. The special seeds were scattered on the moist, fertile forest soil. Falling to the ground, they grew roots and shoots and flew towards the sunlight. So remarkable were these trees that their beautiful white paper bark stood out from all the other trees. At night the polished sheen reflected the light of the moon showing the trail. Eelemani felt so safe knowing that the Gods had given her such a powerful marker to protect her on her journey. And so the trees of Eelemani flourished and over the aeons of time the Bundjalung people came to learn of the magical properties: Just as the trees had protected Eelemani, the leaves were found to protect against infection and skin ailments…
—From the opening speech by Dr Alan Twomey at the 1995 Tea Tree Oil National Conference – from folklore to fact in August 1995
Tea Tree (melaleuca alternifolia)
Plant appearance: bushy tree with long branches and twigs, small narrow leaves, and white cotton puff flowers.
Parts used: leaves and branches
Oil appearance: colorless to pale yellow
Therapeutic uses: bacterial skin infections, respiratory tract infections, sinusitis, rhinitis, laryngitis, bronchitis, wounds, ulceration, pimples, acne, abscesses, head and body lice, fungal infection, athletes foot, warts, verrucas
Precautions: may cause irritation; skin patch test advisable
RECIPE
–>EARACHE: if you have persistent pain and earache, seek a medical diagnosis<—
General earache
warm a teaspoon of (therapeutic grade) olive oil and add it to 1 drop of lavender and 1 drop of chamomile roman and blend well. Soak a cotton ball in it and wring out the excess oil. Place gently in your ear.
Use the following blend around the ear area, up the neck, and across the cheek bone:
Basic Care Kit Blend:
chamomile roman EO 2 drops
lavender EO 1 drop
tea tree EO 1 drop
geranium EO 1 drop
Blend together. Dilute by putting 3-5 drops into each teaspoon of carrier oil (e.g. sweet almond.) Apply warm compress to the area after applying the blend to area as directed above.
Tao Talk 
Tea tree oil is the best for acne. Even adult acne.
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Thank you for adding the folklore. There was a time when I was struggling with skin problems. Tea tree oil worked for me.
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Thats such an assuring folk tale!
I remember having seen two of such trees with white bark at Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Mumbai, India when we had registered ourselves for 2 days of exploration. And I remember the expert botanist on the tour telling us about it being not the native variety.
Tea tree oil sounds familiar to me. Probably because it is part of many brands of body wash as well as the moisturizing creams.
Thanks for sharing.
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Anagha, glad you liked the folk tale. Sanjay Gandhi National Park sounds like a fun place to explore. I’ve learned through the research for these posts that many plants were taken from their homes and moved to other places with some exploitation/profit in mind with them. I think tea tree is one of them. I’ve been using a drop in the diffuser with peppermint and frankincense and it is giving me some interesting dreams! You are welcome.
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Wow! Never seen a picture of a Tea tree before – so striking with their white bark.
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Yes, they are very pretty trees 🙂
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Nice story!
The Multicolored Diary
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Thank you, Tarka!
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Beautiful tale! And these trees re beautiful too, love the white trunk and these hairy leaves!
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Thanks for stopping by, Frederique!
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I use tea tree oil and I knew most of its benefits. But I have never seen a picture of the tree before. I didn’t know that it had a white bark. I loved to read about the origin too. Thank you for sharing.
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Glad you got a chance to see what the tree looks like, Shweta, you are welcome. Thanks for reading!
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Pleasure. Thank you for this crash course on essential oils.
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You are very welcome. I bought the Worwood book after going to a talk at the local library in January on essential oils. It’s a wealth of info and was a perfect topic for A2Z this year 🙂
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Thank you for sharing that info. 😄
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Tea tree is very good for dandruff too! Very informative, Li. 🙂
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I love the smell of this oil. Just finished a soap with this essential oil.
Feels great! Aromatherapy 🙂
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I love the smell of it too. Soap with it would be great!
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I may already have mentioned that hubby and I spent our honeymoon in Australia? Part of the experience was a “walkabout” with an Aborigine who taught us a lot about the plants and their benefits. Of course tea tree was the most memorable. I ended up purchasing a bottle of that oil. Pretty smelly, but they swore it was good for pretty much everything!!
My T is about our national hero Wilhelm Tell:
https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-z-2020-switzerland-tell-typography.html
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It’s good in small doses, blended with other oils. I’ve been using a blend of it, peppermint, and frankincense in the diffuser.
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Not one I’ve tried..maybe after all this is over…
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Beautiful tale and an equally beautiful picture. Although, I’ve used one or two products which have tea tree oil in them, I didn’t know what the tree looked like. It’s simply gorgeous.
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I can see myself traveling along the path home between the trees. It is amazing the properties of so many of the essential oils.
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What a lovely story! Tea tree is another of my staples.
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Chris, what do you use it for? So far I’ve only used it in the diffuser.
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Mainly for bites and stings – dab a drop of neat oil on the site. I’ve made scented candles to keep the bugs away when we sit outside on summer evenings or use in a diffuser for the same reason, much as you might use citronella. Also with lavender and peppermint in solution as a kitchen spray. A few drops in a bath tub is refreshing in the summer and good as a cold-flu remedy mixed with eucalyptus and peppermint – a couple of drops of each (if you have the water).
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Thank you much for the tips. How short are you on water where you’re at?
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It’s not quite so bad as it was 2 years ago when we all feared the taps would go dry, but we’re restricted to 105 litres of municipal water per day for all usage (it was 70 litres). No hosepipes or sprinklers for the garden or car washing and you may only water you garden at certain times on certain days, unless you use your ‘grey’ water which we do. We keep having to un-jam the bath taps as we’ve got so used to not using. I suppose I could have an occasional soak, but after 4 years of restrictions it seems so wrong to do so!
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Oh my goodness. Can you dig your own well to get water? Or collect it in rainbarrels for watering garden? When we first moved to this house at the end of 2011 it had one 12-gal hot water heater for bathroom and laundry and one 12-gal for the kitchen. Up until 2018, there was no way to take a bath, and showers had to be super quick. I finally was able to afford to put a bigger hot water in for the bathroom in 2018 and was able to take a real bath (although in a very small tub!) for the first time here. I still consider it a great luxury.
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Well you know exactly how it is! We do collect rainwater into large barrels running off the roof, but the problem is that virtually all our rainfall is over a few winter months and it doesn’t last through our summer drought. It is possible to have a borehole dug, but it’s quite expensive and the more people have, the lower the water table becomes. The good news is that the rains came properly last winter and that, combined with people using less, has allowed the dams (reservoirs) to recover to about 70% of capacity.
As you’ll know, having less water is something you adapt to, like our rolling blackouts (another story) and our lockdown arrangements. We have many other blessings to count 🙂
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Sounds like things are better than they were there. I understand those blackouts also. The land in this area is “soft”, where trees, power poles, mailboxes, etc. drift/slant/topple over time. When they do, the power goes out until their crews find out where and repair. They refuse to invest in underground lines but at the same time allowed the natural gas company to dig up several roads in the area to install their underground gas-from-fracking lines. Why they couldn’t have collaborated with them to run power lines in the giant tubes is a mystery to me. I’m embarrassed to say that the two willow trees out front have been responsible for at least a few of the outages when their limbs fell off and onto the lines. About blessings, yes, anyone without covid and not on a respirator can count their blessings ❤
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Such a charming origins tale! I’ll think of it whenever I use the oil. It’s definitely a go-to in my medicine cabinet, although no so much in my perfumery. 🙂
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It adds an interesting note in the diffuser, and between it, the peppermint, and the frankincense has been giving me some very interesting dreams! Yes, the tale is beautiful and memorable. How do you use it as a medicine?
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I use it for itching, irritation, cuts. It’s fun trying different diffuser things, and noting the effects. I always love interesting dreams!
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Try it and see what happens! I’ve been using 3 drops peppermint, 1 drop each of tea tree and frankincense.
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I think we are all agreed, what a delightful tale! Such lovely looking trees.
T is for …
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I can see them lighting the path in more ways than one. Glad you enjoyed the tale and the trees.
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Cool story – and it’s not surprising there had to be a story to explain such a distinctive-looking tree.
Black and White (Words and Pictures)
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Glad you enjoyed it, Anne. I bet it would look good as a wood print also 😉
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Tea Tree is one of my “go to” for everything oils.
We only take 10 oils when we travel (because of space) Tea Tree is always in my case.
Time
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Great!
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Tea tree is the best for fungal skin infections. I always have some on hand. However, I hate the smell! The tree is pretty, I had never seen a picture before.
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I’ve been putting a drop with peppermint and frankincense in the diffuser. In small quantities it adds an interesting accent. Really good to know it can be used for fungal infections.
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Beautiful story 🙂
I used to add tea tree to my conditioner when I worked kids, it’s supposed to repel lice.
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I had read it was a good insect repellent as well. I think it and neem are closely related. Good idea to add it to shampoo to ward off lice!
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We all smelled so good 🙂
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What a lovely story. and what lovely trees. I have been using tea tree products for a long time.
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Glad you enjoyed the story and glad you can testify to tea tree as a positive thing 🙂
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I know people that use this on their cats too.
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Really? How??
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I have never heard of the tale and just adore it! Tea Tree Oil is a must in my cabinet also. I have been using it under the nose, under the mask, when I have to go out. Sometimes when I sleep also just to give my lungs a good clearing. Also, just a teeny weeny semi semi semi drop will do ya. I am really liking your herbal posts!
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Glad you are enjoying the posts and thank you for sharing how you use tea tree. I think it and the peppermint have been doing a great job on clearing my lungs as well.
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I’ve never seen a tea tree. They are really interesting looking. Weekends In Maine
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Yes they are quite striking.
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So interesting. I’ve used the tea tree essence before, but I’ve never seen the tree before. They are so beautiful.
@JazzFeathers
The Old Shelter – Living the Twenties
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Yes they are!
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I like to use tea tree oil in dog shampoo and in a spritz with citronella oil — it keeps their fur soft and their skin healthy 🙂
An A-Z of Faerie: Thin Places
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Good tips, thank you!
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Thanks for linking this. I nearly posted about ti-tree today but a different variety. 🙂 Bundjalung country is close to my heart. I have spent a lot of time in that part of Australia over the years. There are some very beautiful places there.
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Suzanne that is so wonderful you’ve seen these trees close up. I bet you feel a special energy around them don’t you.
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They can be quite magical sometimes. The trees that frame the photo in my Day 12 post are another variety of melaleuca.
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😮 What are the odds we’d both post on the same tree? I had no idea. So neat 🙂
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Yes, the trees seem to be talking to us. I had no idea this theme idea would prove to be so magical. 🙂
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As soon as I saw your theme I perked up. I appreciate you inviting others to link up with their tree stories also.
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Thanks so much for joining in. It’s been lovely getting to know you better.
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My pleasure ❤
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