e-Key v3 - Syzygium
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Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Myrtaceae - Syzygium Gaertn.

Description :

  • Trees or shrubs
  • Leaves opposite
  • Flowers in axillary and terminal cymes or corymbs
  • Calyx shortly lobed, truncate, or sinuate; tube obovate or club-shaped, sometimes produced above ovary
  • Petals 4 or 5, ± connate and falling entire, mostly white
  • Stamens many, in many series, much longer than petals; anthers versatile
  • Ovary in upper part of receptacle, 2-locular, with a few ovules in each locule; style somewhat thick and flattened; stigma simple
  • Fruit a berry, 1-locular by abortion
  • Seeds 1-few, globose
  • x = 11 (6, 8, 9) (polyploidy, B-chromosomes)

Nomenclature:

  • Syzygium Gaertn.
    • Gaertner: 166 (1788) name conserved
    • Sonder: 521 (1862)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 500, fairly cosmopolitan in warm areas
  • Southern Africa : Species 6, widespread except in North-West, Free State, Lesotho and Northern and Western Cape

References:

  • GAERTNER, J. 1788. De fructibus et seminibus plantarum . Academia Carolina, Stuttgart
  • SONDER, O.W. 1862. Myrtaceae . Flora capensis 2