Myrtle Family

Leslie R. Landrum

Trees, shrubs, or subshrubs, usually synoecious, terrestrial, unarmed, occasionally clonal by root sprouts; young growth usually glandular, usually aromatic when crushed; trunk often with smooth or scaly bark; hairs unicellular, simple or dibrachiate. Leaves usually persistent, opposite, alternate, or whorled, sometimes decussate, simple; without true stipules; usually petiolate; blade leathery, papery, or submembranous, margins entire, sometimes somewhat sinuate. Inflorescences usually axillary, sometimes terminal or pseudoterminal, solitary flowers, dichasia, racemes, panicles, or spikes; bracts often present; bracteoles usually present. Flowers usually bisexual, rarely unisexual, (0–)4 or 5(–7)-merous, actinomorphic; usually epigynous, rarely semiepigynous; hypanthium obconic, cylindric, or cup-shaped, sometimes prolonged beyond summit of ovary; calyx lobes distinct and, usually, imbricate, or fused in calyptra that falls as a unit or tears open; petals distinct and imbricate, or fused with calyx, rarely coherent, usually equaling calyx lobes (when lobes distinct); nectary glands, when present, produced on disc surrounding style; stamens 10–720; anthers basifixed or dorsifixed, usually dehiscing by slits; pistil 1; ovary inferior (partially so in Melaleuca), 1–6[–18]-locular and carpellate; placentation axile, subapical, or basal; style 1; stigma 1; ovules 2–300(–500), usually biseriate or multiseriate, bitegmic. Fruits berries, capsules with apical dehiscence, or nutlike. Seeds 1–100+; seed coat membranous, ± leathery, or hard and bony; embryo starchy or oily; endosperm scant or absent.

Genera ca. 130, species ca. 6000 (13 genera, 38 species in the flora): sw, s, se United States, Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America, s, se Asia, Africa, Pacific Islands (Hawaii, New Guinea, Philippines), Australia; nearly worldwide in tropical, subtropical, and Mediterranean regions.

Myrtaceae are apparently of Gondwanan origin with centers of diversity in tropical America and Australasia and with fewer species in Africa and southern Asia. Syzygium aromaticum (Linnaeus) Merrill & L. M. Perry (clove) and Pimenta dioica (Linnaeus) Merrill (allspice) are economically important spices; Psidium guajava (guava) is a common tropical fruit; species of Eucalyptus are widely planted for fast growing timber and as ornamentals. Melaleuca (including Callistemon) and other genera are planted as ornamentals with M. quinquenervia having become an invasive pest in Florida.

Native and introduced genera of Myrtaceae in North America can be divided conveniently into two groups: those with dry fruit (Chamelaucium, Eucalyptus, Leptospermum, and Melaleuca) and those with fleshy fruit (Calyptranthes, Eugenia, Luma, Mosiera, Myrcianthes, Myrtus, Psidium, Rhodomyrtus, and Syzygium). This division based on fruit type has historically been the basis for recognizing subfamilies or tribes; molecular work shows that neither group is monophyletic. For the purposes of this treatment, the division based on fruit type will be retained, but without formal taxonomic standing. Among the fleshy-fruited genera, embryo structure has been taxonomically important. In the bony-seeded genera (Mosiera, Myrtus, Psidium, and Rhodomyrtus), the embryos are small and difficult to see. The C-shaped embryos in that group have small, leaflike or linear cotyledons equal to or shorter than the cylindrical hypocotyls. In other fleshy-fruited genera, it is usually possible to open the seed coat and see the embryo. In Eugenia, the embryo is mainly cotyledon tissue fused into a reniform to globose mass. In Myrcianthes and Syzygium, the cotyledons are similar to those of a bean and unfused and the hypocotyl is insignificant. In Calyptranthes, the cotyledons are leaflike and folded into a bundle and the equally long hypocotyl curls around the bundle. In Luma, the cotyledons are lenticular and pressed against each other and the hypocotyl about equals them in length.

Recently, Pimenta dioica has been shown to be naturalized near Miami, Florida. It is most similar to Syzygium cumini (both have berry fruits and many-flowered panicle inflorescences). The two species are compared under 2. S. cumini.

SELECTED REFERENCES Lucas, E. J. et al. 2005. Phylogenetic patterns in the fleshy-fruited Myrtaceae—Preliminary molecular evidence. Pl. Syst. Evol. 251: 35–51. Lucas, E. J. et al. 2007. Suprageneric phylogenetics of Myrteae, the generically richest tribe in Myrtaceae. Taxon 56: 1105–1128. McVaugh, R. 1956. Tropical American Myrtaceae. Fieldiana, Bot. 29: 145–228. McVaugh, R. 1963. Tropical American Myrtaceae, II. Fieldiana, Bot. 29: 395–532. McVaugh, R. 1968. The genera of American Myrtaceae—An interim report. Taxon 17: 354–418. McVaugh, R. 1969. The botany of the Guayana Highland—Part VIII. Myrtaceae. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 18: 55–286. Wilson, P. G. et al. 2005. Relationships within Myrtaceae sensu lato based on a matK phylogeny. Pl. Syst. Evol. 251: 3–19.