Myoporum tenuifolium

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Myoporum tenuifolium
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Scrophulariaceae
Genus: Myoporum
Species:
M. tenuifolium
Binomial name
Myoporum tenuifolium
Synonyms [1]
  • Citharexylum perforatum G.Forst.
  • Citharexylum tenuifolium G.Forst.
  • Myoporum acuminatum R.Br.

Myoporum tenuifolium is a plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae and it is endemic to New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands. It can be distinguished from Myoporum crassifolium , (the only other member of the genus to occur in New Caledonia) by its very thin leaves and its glabrous flowers.

Contents

Description

Myoporum tenuifolium is an erect shrub usually growing to a height of 1–2 m (3 ft 3 in–6 ft 7 in) with flattened branches. Its leaves are arranged alternately, usually 50–70 mm (2.0–2.8 in) long and 9–16 mm (0.35–0.63 in) wide on a petiole 3–10 mm (0.12–0.39 in) long. They are unusually thin and membranous, elliptic in shape and have a distinct mid-vein on the lower surface. [2]

The flowers are borne in leaf axils singly or in groups of up to four on a flattened pedicel 6–12.5 mm (0.24–0.49 in) long. The flowers have five triangular sepals and five petals joined at their bases to form a bell-shaped tube. The petals are white and the tube is 2–4.5 mm (0.079–0.177 in) long with the lobes slightly shorter than the tube. The tube and its lobes are glabrous and there are four stamens that extend slightly beyond it. The fruit is a reddish to brown, oval drupe 3.5–7 mm (0.14–0.28 in) long. [2]

Taxonomy and naming

Myoporum tenuifolium was first formally described in 1786 by Georg Forster in Florulae Insularum Australium Prodromus in 1810. [3] [4] The specific epithet (tenuifolium) is derived from the Latin words tenuis meaning "slender" and folium, "leaf". [5]

Distribution and habitat

Myoporum tenuifolium is found on Grande Terre, the main island of New Caledonia and on Maré Island and Ouvéa in the Loyalty Island group. It grows in scrub and forest, often on steep hillsides. [2]

Ecology

This species has become naturalised on the southern coast of South Africa. [6]

Use in horticulture

Myoporum tenuifolium is a common garden plant in eastern Spain. [7]

Related Research Articles

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Myoporum laetum, commonly known as ngaio or mousehole tree is a plant in the family Scrophulariaceae endemic to New Zealand, including the Chatham Islands. It is a fast growing shrub, readily distinguished from others in the genus by the transparent dots in the leaves which are visible when held to a light.

<i>Myoporum</i> Genus of flowering plants

Myoporum is a genus of flowering plants in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae. There are 30 species in the genus, eighteen of which are endemic to Australia although others are endemic to Pacific Islands, including New Zealand, and one is endemic to two Indian Ocean islands. They are shrubs or small trees with leaves that are arranged alternately and have white, occasionally pink flowers and a fruit that is a drupe.

<i>Arthropodium cirratum</i> Species of flowering plant

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<i>Eremophila brevifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Eremophila brevifolia, also known as spotted eremophila, is a flowering plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is an erect, open, spindly shrub with sticky, short, serrated leaves and white to pink flowers and is only known from a few scattered populations.

<i>Myoporum insulare</i> Species of plant

Myoporum insulare, commonly known as common boobialla, native juniper, is a species of flowering plant in the figwort family Scrophulariaceae and is endemic to coastal areas of Australia. It is a shrub or small tree which grows on dunes and coastal cliffs, is very salt tolerant and widely used in horticulture.

<i>Myoporum parvifolium</i> Species of plant

Myoporum parvifolium, commonly known as creeping boobialla, creeping myoporum, dwarf native myrtle or small leaved myoporum is a plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae. It is a low, spreading shrub with long, trailing stems and white, star-shaped flowers and is endemic to southern Australia including Flinders Island.

<i>Myoporum viscosum</i> Species of plant

Myoporum viscosum, commonly known as sticky boobialla, is a plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae and is endemic to South Australia. It is unusual in that sometimes, especially when the leaves are crushed, it has an extremely unpleasant smell.

<i>Raukaua simplex</i>

Raukaua simplex is a species of evergreen plant in the Araliaceae family. This species is native to New Zealand. The species occurs in certain lowland, montane and subalpine forests from the Waihou River southward to Stewart Island and the Auckland Islands. An example occurrence in Westland forests includes associates such as Cyathea smithii and Dicksonia squarrosa.

<i>Microtis unifolia</i> Species of orchid

Microtis unifolia, commonly known as the common onion orchid, is a species of orchid occurring from south China to Japan, Malesia, and Australasia to the Southwest Pacific. It has a single green leaf and up to one hundred small green or yellowish-green flowers. A common, widespread orchid which is easily grown in pots and is sometimes a weed in plant nurseries.

<i>Parsonsia capsularis</i> Species of flowering plant

Parsonsia capsularis is a climbing plant endemic to New Zealand in the family Apocynaceae.

<i>Jasminum didymum</i> Species of plant

Jasminum didymum is a species of scrambling vine or low shrub. It is native to insular Southeast Asia from Java to the Philippines, as well as Australia, as well as some islands in the Pacific. Jasminum didymum occurs naturally in habitats from rainforests to arid and semi-arid shrublands.

<i>Micromelum minutum</i> Species of flowering plant

Micromelum minutum, commonly known as limeberry, dilminyin. kimiar margibur, tulibas tilos (Philippines), sesi (Indonesia) and samui (Thailand), is a species of small tree or shrub in the citrus plant family Rutaceae. It occurs from India and Indochina to Australia. It has pinnate leaves with egg-shaped to lance-shaped leaflets, hairy, pale green or creamish, scented flowers arranged in large groups and yellow to orange or red, oval to spherical berries in dense clusters.

<i>Pteris comans</i> Species of fern

Pteris comans is a fern from eastern Australia and New Zealand. The habitat of the hairy bracken or netted brake is rainforest or moist open forest. The botanist Johann Georg Adam Forster published this plant in Halle, the year 1786, in his Florulae Insularum Australium Prodromus. The specific epithet comans is derived from Latin, meaning "covered with hair".

Myoporum crassifolium is a plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae. It is a shrub or small tree with thick, fleshy leaves and small groups of white flowers spotted with pink or purple. It is endemic to New Caledonia, Vanuatu and the Loyalty Islands and is a rich source of the essential oil, bisabolol.

<i>Myoporum obscurum</i> Species of flowering plant

Myoporum obscurum, commonly known as popwood, sandalwood or bastard ironwood is a plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae. It is a very rare shrub, endemic to Norfolk Island where it occurs in a few scattered locations.

<i>Myoporum oppositifolium</i> Species of flowering plant

Myoporum oppositifolium, commonly known as twin-leaf myoporum, is a plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae. It is easily distinguished from others in the genus by the combination of glabrous leaves and branches, its opposite leaf arrangement and its serrated leaves. Its distribution is restricted to the extreme south-west of Western Australia.

<i>Myoporum platycarpum</i> Species of plant

Myoporum platycarpum, known by several common names including sugarwood, false sandalwood and ngural is a plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae. It is rounded with bright green foliage as a young shrub and roughly fissured, dark grey bark when mature. Sugarwood is endemic to the southern half of continental Australia.

<i>Myoporum tetrandrum</i> Species of flowering plant

Myoporum tetrandrum, commonly known as slender myoporum or boobialla is a plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae. It is an erect and spreading shrub endemic to the south-west of Western Australia, common in moist areas and like most of the other members of its genus has bell shaped, star-like white flowers in the leaf axils.

<i>Luisia tristis</i> Species of orchid

Luisia tristis, commonly known as the velvet orchid, is a species of epiphytic or lithophytic orchid with wiry stems often forming tangled clumps, cylindrical leaves and flowering stems with up to three green flowers with a dark red to dark maroon labellum. This orchid occurs in tropical Asia, New Guinea, Australia and some islands of the Western Pacific Ocean.

<i>Arachniodes aristata</i> Species of fern

Arachniodes aristata is a species of fern in the family Dryopteridaceae. It is a glossy fern with fronds up to 1 m long. The type specimen was collected by George Forster at an unknown island in the Pacific Ocean, when travelling on the second voyage of James Cook. This plant was first formally named Polypodium aristatum in 1786 in the Florulae Insularum Australium Prodromus, published by his father Johann Reinhold Forster. The specific epithet "aristata" derives from Latin, meaning "bearing a bristle".

References

  1. 1 2 "Myoporum tenuifolium G.Forst". The Plant List. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Chinnock, R.J. (Bob) (2007). Eremophila and allied genera : a monograph of the plant family Myoporaceae (1st ed.). Dural, NSW: Rosenberg. pp. 103–105. ISBN   9781877058165.
  3. "Myoporum tenuifolium". APNI. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  4. Forster, Georg (1786). Florulae Insularum Australium Prodromus. Göttingen. p. 44. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
  5. Backer, C.A. (1936). Verklarend woordenboek der wetenschappelijke namen van de in Nederland en Nederlandsch-Indië in het wild groeiende en in tuinen en parken gekweekte varens en hoogere planten (Edition Nicoline van der Sijs).
  6. "Myoporum tenuifolium". Biodiversity Explorer - The Web of Life in Southern Africa. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
  7. Tomas, F.; Ferreres, F.; Barberan, F. A. T.; Nieto, J. L. (May 1985). "Flavonoid Diglycosides from Myoporum tenuifolium". Journal of Natural Products. 48 (3): 506–507. doi:10.1021/np50039a038.