The Myrtales are an order of flowering plants placed as a sister to the eurosids II clade as of the publishing of the Eucalyptus grandis genome in June 2014.
Melaleuca is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles or tea-trees. They range in size from small shrubs that rarely grow to more than 16 m (52 ft) high, to trees up to 35 m (115 ft). Their flowers generally occur in groups, forming a "head" or "spike" resembling a brush used for cleaning bottles, containing up to 80 individual flowers.
Myrtaceae, the myrtle family, is a family of dicotyledonous plants placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, pōhutukawa, bay rum tree, clove, guava, acca (feijoa), allspice, and eucalyptus are some notable members of this group. All species are woody, contain essential oils, and have flower parts in multiples of four or five. The leaves are evergreen, alternate to mostly opposite, simple, and usually entire. The flowers have a base number of five petals, though in several genera, the petals are minute or absent. The stamens are usually very conspicuous, brightly coloured, and numerous.
Metrosideros is a genus of approximately 60 trees, shrubs, and vines mostly found in the Pacific region in the family Myrtaceae. Most of the tree forms are small, but some are exceptionally large, the New Zealand species in particular. The name derives from the Ancient Greek metra or "heartwood" and sideron or "iron". Perhaps the best-known species are the pōhutukawa, northern and southern rātā of New Zealand, and ʻōhiʻa lehua, from the Hawaiian Islands.
Myrciaria floribunda, commonly known as cambuizeiro, guavaberry or rumberry, is a species of plant in the family Myrtaceae. It can be found across South and Central America and the West Indies in dry or moist coastal woodlands, up to 300 metres above sea level. The guavaberry, which should not be confused with the guava, is a close relative of camu camu.
Alzatea verticillata is a small flowering tree, native to the Neotropics. It inhabits moist submontane forests from Costa Rica and Panama in Central America south to Peru and Bolivia in tropical South America. It is the sole species of genus Alzatea and family Alzateaceae.
Psiloxylon mauritianum is a species of flowering plant, the sole species of the genus Psiloxylon. It is endemic to the Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean.
Vochysiaceae is a plant family belonging to the order Myrtales.
Eugenia is a genus of flowering plants in the myrtle family Myrtaceae. It has a worldwide, although highly uneven, distribution in tropical and subtropical regions. The bulk of the approximately 1,100 species occur in the New World tropics, especially in the northern Andes, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Forest of eastern Brazil. Other centers of diversity include New Caledonia and Madagascar. Many of the species that occur in the Old World have received a new classification into the genus Syzygium.
A stringybark can be any of the many Eucalyptus species which have thick, fibrous bark. Like all eucalypts, stringybarks belong to the family Myrtaceae. In exceptionally fertile locations some stringybark species (in particular messmate stringybark can be very large, reaching over 80 metres in height. More typically, stringybarks are medium-sized trees in the 10 to 40 metre range.
Backhousia is a genus of thirteen currently known species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. All the currently known species are endemic to Australia in the rainforests and seasonally dry forests of Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia.
Syncarpia is a small group of trees in the myrtle family (Myrtaceae) described as a genus in 1839. They are native to Queensland and New South Wales in Australia.
Lenwebbia is a genus of shrubs or small trees in the myrtle family Myrtaceae. The genus is named to honour the Australian plant ecologist Dr. Leonard Webb. The genus occurs in mesic forests along or near the east coast of Australia, from northern New South Wales to northeastern Queensland.
Eucalyptopsis is a genus of describing two species of trees, constituting part of the plant family Myrtaceae and included in the eucalypts group. They have botanical records of growing naturally in New Guinea and the Moluccas, within the Malesia region. Plant geneticists have found their closest evolutionary relatives in the monotypic genera and species Stockwellia quadrifida and Allosyncarpia ternata.
Verticordia is a genus of more than 100 species of plants commonly known as featherflowers, in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. They range in form from very small shrubs such as V. verticordina to trees like V. cunninghamii, some spindly, others dense and bushy, but the majority are woody shrubs up to 2.0 m (7 ft) tall. The flowers are variously described as "feathery", "woolly" or "hairy" and are found in most colours except blue. They often appear to be in rounded groups or spikes but in fact are always single, each flower borne on a separate stalk in a leaf axil. Each flower has five sepals and five petals all of a similar size with the sepals often having feathery or hairy lobes. There are usually ten stamens alternating with variously shaped staminodes. The style is simple, usually not extending beyond the petals and often has hairs near the tip. All but two species are found in Southwest Australia, the other two occurring in the Northern Territory.
The flora of Australia comprises a vast assemblage of plant species estimated to over 21,000 vascular and 14,000 non-vascular plants, 250,000 species of fungi and over 3,000 lichens. The flora has strong affinities with the flora of Gondwana, and below the family level has a highly endemic angiosperm flora whose diversity was shaped by the effects of continental drift and climate change since the Cretaceous. Prominent features of the Australian flora are adaptations to aridity and fire which include scleromorphy and serotiny. These adaptations are common in species from the large and well-known families Proteaceae (Banksia), Myrtaceae, and Fabaceae.
Metrosideros stipularis is a species of the myrtle family commonly known as tepú, trepú, or tepual. It is an evergreen tree or shrub that can attain a height of about seven metres. The plant is native to southern South America in the southern portions of Chile and Argentina and is a typical resident of very wet areas, especially peat bogs. Tepú has white flowers that emerge during the austral summer from January through March. The tree's wood is used within its range as a firewood due to it high energy content. This species has often been placed in its own genus Tepualia, but recent works include it in Metrosideros.
Viscum combreticola, the Combretum mistletoe, is a leafless, dioecious mistletoe shrub, occurring from southern to tropical Africa, in a broad zone following the Rift Valleys. Though it is typically a hemiparasite of Combretum species, it may also be found on Terminalia (Combretaceae), Acacia, Croton, Diplorhynchus, Dombeya, Heteropyxis, Maytenus, Melia, Strychnos or Vangueria.
Harpephyllum is a genus of trees in the family Anacardiaceae. The sole species is Harpephyllum caffrum, a dioecious evergreen species from South Africa and Mozambique that is also cultivated. The fruit is edible.
Fergusonina, the sole genus in the family of Fergusoninidae, are gall-forming flies. There are about 40 species in the genus, all of them producing galls on Eucalyptus, Melaleuca, Corymbia, and Metrosideros species in Australia and New Zealand.
