Interesting Facts
Description
Family Myrtaceae
Trees
or shrubs
, evergreen
, usually with essential oils-containing cavities in foliage
, branchlets
, and flowers. Stipules absent or small and caducous
. Leaves opposite, occasionally alternate, occasionally ternate
or pseudo-whorled; leaf blade
with secondary veins pinnate or basal, often with intramarginal veins
near margin
, margin usually entire. Inflorescences axillary
or terminal
, cymose
but variously arranged, 1- to many-flowered. Flowers bisexual
, sometimes polygamous, actinomorphic
. Hypanthium usually adnate
to ovary and prolonged above it. Calyx lobes
(3 or) 4 or 5 or more, distinct
or connate
into a calyptra. Petals 4 or 5, sometimes absent, distinct or connate into a calyptra, sometimes coherent and pseudocalyptrate. Stamens usually numerous
, in 1 to several whorls; filaments
distinct or connate into 5 bundles opposite petals; anthers
2-celled, dorsifixed
or basifixed
, dehiscing longitudinally or rarely terminally; connectives
usually terminating in 1 or more apical glands
. Ovary inferior, semi-inferior, or very rarely superior, carpels 2 to more, locules 1 to many, pseudoseptum sometimes present, placentation usually axile
but occasionally parietal
; ovules 1 to several per locule. Style single; stigma single. Fruit a capsule, berry, drupaceous
berry, or drupe, 1- to many-seeded. Seeds without endosperm or endosperm sparse and thin; testa cartilaginous
or thinly membranous, sometimes absent; embryo straight or curved
.
About 130 genera and 4500-5000 species: Mediterranean region, sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, tropical
and temperate
Asia, Australia, Pacific islands, tropical and South America; 10 genera (five introduced
) and 121 species (50 endemic, 32 introduced treated here) in China.
Many Myrtaceae are cultivated garden ornamentals
, street trees, or plantation trees. Some members
of tribe
Syzygieae are grown as fruit crops. In addition to the cultivated members of the family
treated here, some others grown in China include Acca sellowiana (O. Berg
) Burrett (Feijoa sellowiana (O. Berg) O. Berg), Myrtus communis Linnaeus, and Syncarpia glomulifera (Smith) Niedenzu.[1]
Taxonomy
- Domain:
Eukaryota
(
)
- Whittaker & Margulis,1978
- eukaryotes
- Kingdom:
Plantae
()
- Haeckel, 1866
- Plants
- Subkingdom:
Viridaeplantae
()
- Cavalier-Smith, 1981
- Phylum:
Tracheophyta
()
- Sinnott, 1935 ex Cavalier-Smith, 1998
- Vascular Plants
- Subphylum:
Euphyllophytina
()
- Infraphylum:
Radiatopses
()
- Kenrick & Crane, 1997
- Infraphylum:
Radiatopses
(
- Subphylum:
Euphyllophytina
(
- Phylum:
Tracheophyta
(
- Subkingdom:
Viridaeplantae
(
- Kingdom:
Plantae
(
Notes
Basionym
: Myrtaceae Thryptomene aspera E.Pritz.
Basionym author: (E.Pritz.)
Name
Status: Accepted Name
.
Last scrutiny: 11-Nov-2003
Similar Species
Members of the genus Aluta
ZipcodeZoo has pages for 0 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:
More Info
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- Search using Specialized Databases: GenBank | Medline | Scirus | CISTI/CAL | Agricola Periodicals | Agricola Books
Further Reading
- Chang Hung-ta & Miau Ru-hwai. 1984. Myrtaceae. In: Chen Chieh, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 53(1): 28-135.
Notes
Contributors
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Accessed March 15, 2008. http://www.gbif.org Mediated distribution data from 2 providers.
- Ruggiero M., Gordon D., Bailly N., Kirk P., Nicolson D. (2011). The Catalogue of Life Taxonomic Classification, Edition 2, Part A. In: Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2011 Annual Checklist (Bisby F.A., Roskov Y.R., Orrell T.M., Nicolson D., Paglinawan L.E., Bailly N., Kirk P.M., Bourgoin T., Baillargeon G., Ouvrard D., eds). DVD; Species 2000: Reading, UK.
- The International Plant Names Index. Accessed Dec 27, 2011.
- World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. Release date: November 27, 2009
Data Sources
Accessed through GBIF Data Portal March 15, 2008:
- Australian National Herbarium (CANB)
- National Herbarium of New South Wales: NSW herbarium collection
Identifiers
- Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 10721826
- Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: Kew-7175
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 15639087
- Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:1015601-1
- International Plant Names Index (IPNI) ID: 1015601-1
- Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 1344531
Footnotes
- Jie Chen & Lyn A. Craven "Myrtaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 13 Page 321. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
