Trees, shrubs or lianes, rarely subherbaceous, sometimes dioecious
Leaves alternate, rarely subopposite, simple, often crowded near ends of branches, petioled or subsessile, entire or toothed, often glandular or with lepidote scales; stipules 0
Inflorescence terminal or lateral, racemose, paniculate, umbellate or fasciculate
Flowers bisexual or unisexual, regular, usually small and individually inconspicuous
Calyx of 4 or 5 free or connate sepals, often ciliate, often with dark spots, aestivation valvate, imbricate or contorted
Corolla of 4 or 5 petals, united towards base, sometimes petals free, often with dark dots or stripes, often papillose, usually white or pink, less frequently purple or yellow
Stamens as many as and opposite corolla lobes; anthers introrse, dehiscing by longitudinal slits or rarely by apical pores; filaments present or obsolete, long or short, attached to petals or almost free
Ovary superior, but semi-inferior to inferior in Maesa, unilocular with 1-many ovules on a free-central or basal placenta; globose, ovoid or clavate; style simple, long to almost obsolete; stigma often discoid
Fruit an indehiscent berry or drupe, 1-seeded except for Maesa which is many-seeded
Seeds with copious, often ruminate, endosperm; embryo ± straight
Nomenclature:
Myrsinaceae
Baker: 491 (1877)
Harvey & Wright: 431 (1906)
Phillips 465 (1951)
Dyer: 1 (1963)
Kupicha: 198 (1983)
Halliday: 1 (1984)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Genera ± 40, species ± 1 000, worldwide, mainly in the tropics and subtropics
Southern Africa: Genera 4, species 7
References:
BAKER, J. G. 1877. Flora of tropical Africa 3
DYER, R. A. 1963. Myrsinaceae. Flora of southern Africa 26
HALLIDAY, P. 1984. Flora of tropical East Africa. Myrsinaceae
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Welcome to Biodiversity Advisor 2.0!
Biodiversity Advisor, developed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and its Data Partners, is a system that will provide integrated biodiversity information to a wide range of users who will have access to geospatial data, plant and animal species distribution data, ecosystem-level data, literature, images and metadata.
The integrated information comes from our much-loved Botanical Database of Southern Africa (BODATSA) also known as Plants of Southern Africa (POSA), Zoological Database of Southern Africa (ZODATSA), Biodiversity Geographic Information System (BGIS), SANBI's institutional repository (Opus) and others.
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