Myrceugenia

  • Authority

    Landrum, Leslie R. 1981. A monograph of the genus Myrceugenia (Myrtaceae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 29: 1-137. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Myrtaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Myrceugenia

  • Type

    Type species. M. myrtoides Berg [lectotype, designated by Legrand, Comun. Bot. Mus. Hist. Nat. Montevideo 2(28): 3. 1953].

  • Synonyms

    Nothomyrcia, Nothomyrcia fernandeziana (Hook. & Arn.) Kausel, Myrceugenia myrcioides (Cambess.) O.Berg

  • Description

    Genus Description - Trees up to ca. 10 m high or much branched shrubs less than 1 m high; hairs reddish-brown, yellowish or whitish, appressed or spreading, usually symmetrically or asymmetrically dibrachiate, less often simple, densely to sparsely covering (less often absent) twigs, leaves and flowers; leaves opposite (occasionally ternate or subopposite on some twigs), elliptic, ovate, lanceolate, obovate, oblanceolate or linear, thickly coriaceous to membranous, the midvein usually prominent below, usually impressed above, the marginal and lateral veins indistinct to prominent, the petiole usually channeled adaxially, rarely terete; inflorescence an axillary uniflorous dichasium, an axillary dichasium with 1-3 levels of bifurcation, or an axillary or terminal bracteate shoot (raceme); peduncles solitary or vertically superimposed in groups of 2-4(-5) in the axils of leaves and bracts; bracteoles ovate, lanceolate, linear, filiform, spatulate or orbicular, usually persisting until the fruit matures, rarely caducous at anthesis; Calyx-lobes 4, broadly rounded to sharply acute, hemiorbicular, ovate or triangular, strongly concave to nearly flat, imbricate or less often valvate in the bud; hypanthium usually not prolonged beyond the summit of the ovary; stamens ca. 40 to over 500; petals 4, usually suborbicular; ovary 2-4-locular, the number of locules varying from flower to flower; ovules normally in two longitudinal rows, 2 to ca. 20 in each locule, the number varying from locule to locule; fruit a fleshy berry, yellow, orange, reddish, or dark purple; seeds usually 1-5 per fruit, the testa membranous; embryo myrcioid, i.e. the cotyledons thin, membranous, folded into a bundle, the hypocotyl, horseshoe shaped, encircling the cotyledons.