Vaccinium myrsinites Lam.
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Authority
Sargent, Charles S. 1889. Vaccinium hirsutum. Gard. & Forest. 2: 364, 365, fig. 119.
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Family
Ericaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
Type locality: type collected by Lamarck's brother in 1779 near St. Augustiine, Florida, where he reported it to be common (as it still is) along road- sides and in uncultivated places. Known in English gardens soon after 1800 (Rehder says 1813, but it must have been prior to the publication of the V. niti- dcum plate
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Description
Species Description - Plaints in extensive colonies, 0.25-1 m. high. Leaves coriaceous, evergreen, shiining, dull, or subglaucous; the lower surface usually conspicuously, glandular, otherwise glabrous, or sometimes pubescent; mostly obovate-elliptic, 0.3-0.8 cm. wide, 0.7-1.5 cm. long; the margin entire or' obscurely serrulate. Corolla cylindrourceolate, 5-7 mm. long, white to deep pink. Fruit dark to subglaucous, 5-7 mm. in diam., of only fair quality.
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Discussion
V. myrsinites is an allopolyploidic species (see the discussion of the alloploidioll in Camp aild Gilly 1943, p. 342) derived out of hybrids between tenellum and darrowi; because of this there is a certain amount of segregation, the subglaucous "darrowoid" phase being concentrated along the Florida gulf coast and the non- glaucous "tenelloid" phase in northeastern Florida and in southern Georgia, vwhere even a few partially deciduous plants are known. There are stronig arguments for a pre-Pleistocene origin of this species. For a further consideration of this item see footnote 20 under the discussion of V. ashei (species 6).
V. myrsinites hybridizes freely with all tetraploids of the area, those with arkansanum and australe yielding the most striking segregate and back-cross combinations because of the wide differences in plant characters. In some 9f these, intermediate characters may be evident, indicating a balance of genes; in others the height factor of myrsinites may be coupled with the general leaf-types of the others, or the reverse condition may be found. This latter group is of particular interest because of its height (as much as 2 meters), its small evergreen leaves borne on gracefully drooping branches, and abundant flowers, deep red in bud and later becoming pink; V. myrsinites also hybridizes freely with fus- catum, the segregates and back-crosses adding to the difficulties of interpretation of the latter species. For a discussion of these see V. fuscatum. It is also strongly suspected that certain plants in parts of southern Georgia and northern Florida are the result of hybridization between myrsinites and virgatum. As in the foregoing species, plants grown under pot culture in the greenhouse some- times have excessively lax branches. Such a plant led to the description of var. decumbehns. Although the plant on which V. nitidum var. decumbens was based was said to have come from South Carolina, no authentic records are known of such material from this state.
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Distribution
Throughout much of Florida, also in southern Alabama and southern Georgia, and in South Carolina along the coast; in dry sandy areas, usually exposed to full sunlight.
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