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Family:

Myrtaceae (Magnoliophyta)

Primary Citation:

Prodr. (DC.) 3: 244. 1828

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Common Names:

punchberry, spike milfoil, punchberry, hoja menuda, rama menuda, punch berry

Description:

Author: Maria Lúcia Kawasaki

Description: Shrubs or trees ca. 7 m tall. Leaves: petioles to 3 mm long; blades narrowly elliptic to elliptic or ovate to lanceolate, 5-13 × 2-4 cm, drying brownish green or olive-green above, paler below, chartaceous, usually glabrous above, appressed-pubescent to puberulous below, indistinctly pellucid-punctate on both surfaces, the base usually obtuse, the apex acuminate; midvein impressed on the upper surface; lateral veins numerous pairs, slightly salient on both surfaces; marginal vein 1, 1-2 mm from margin. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, paniculate, multiflorous, 4-8 cm long, the axes appressed-pubescent; bracteoles lanceolate, ca. 1 mm long; buds subglobose, 2-3 mm long; hypanthium not prolonged above ovary apex, yellowish-sericeous; calyx-lobes broadly ovate, 1-2 mm long, sericeous; petals 2-3 mm diam., sericeous without; stamens 4-5 mm long; style 4-5 mm long. Fruits ellipsoid, ca. 1 cm long, appressed-pubescent; seeds ca. 8 mm long.

Common names: Guayabillo, murta.

Distribution: Mexico, Central and South America, and West Indies.

Ecology: Cloud forest, disturbed rain forest on steep, N-facing andesitic slope.

Phenology: Fl and fr in Aug.

Pollination: No observations recorded.

Dispersal: No observations recorded but eaten by animals, especially birds, and the seed most likely dispersed by them.

Taxonomic notes: This species is very similar to the South American Myrcia fallax and may be conspecific with it. This species description was prepared for the Plants and Lichens of Saba project and most accurately describes it as it occurs on this island.

Uses: None recorded.

Etymology: The epithet most likely refers to the beauty of the plant.

Flora and Monograph Treatment(s):

Myrcia splendens (Sw.) DC.: [Manuscript] Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.
Myrcia splendens (Sw.) DC.: [Article] Maguire, Bassett. 1969. The botany of the Guayana Highland-part VIII. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 18: 1-290.