Myrtus
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Authority
Maguire, Bassett. 1969. The botany of the Guayana Highland-part VIII. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 18: 1-290.
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Family
Myrtaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Genus Description - The limits of the genus Myrtus, typified by the European species M . communis L., have never been satisfactorily established (cf Fieldiana Bot. 2 9: 512-518. 1963). In the 18th and early 19th centuries, many American species were described as members of this genus, but more recent studies of the Myrtaceae indicate that Myrtus is represented in the American flora by 15 species at most. An adequate revision of the Pimentinae of the N e w World, still much to be desired, may eventually lead to clarification of the limits of Myrtus and Psidium, and the smaller genera, e.g., Ugni, Myrteola, Calycolpus, that have been segregated from these larger ones. Burrett (Notizbl. Berlin 15: 479-483. 1941), in the course of a general revision of the genera allied to Myrtus, gave it as his opinion that Myrtus itself was represented in America by a few species only, these almost all West Indian, with 4- merous flowers in short axillary racemes. The plant described below is probably not of the same genus as these West Indian species, and it is indeed unique among the American Myrtaceae. It agrees in the technical characters of axillary flowers, 5- merous calyx and 2- or 3-locular ovary with the European M . communis, but there the resemblance ends, and it seems likely that any resemblance there may be is fortuitous. Gleason assigned it to Myrtus in the belief that it was congeneric with the species he called M . myricoides, M . stenophylla and M . roraimae; that is, members of the genus Ugni. The anthers of M . altemifolia, however, are linear-oblong and laterally dehiscent, quite unlike the sagittate anthers that are the mark of Ugni.