Eugenia

Water apple Eugenia aquea, photographed by Tai Lung Aik.

Belongs within: Myrteae.

Eugenia is a genus of trees and shrubs that can be distinguished from closely related taxa by its pinnately veined leaves, single-seeded fruit and massive cotyledons (Flora of China). The centre of diversity for the genus is in the Americas but species are found throughout the tropics. The fruit of some species, such as the water apple or jambu air Eugenia aquea, is edible. The aromatic flower buds of clove E. aromatica, a native of the Maluku Islands in Indonesia, are widely used for flavouring food.

Characters (from Flora of China): Trees or shrubs. Leaves opposite, petiolate; leaf blade pinnately veined. Inflorescences axillary or often lateral below leaves. Flowers bisexual, solitary or clustered. Hypanthium short. Calyx lobes 4. Petals 4. Stamens numerous; anthers parallel, longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary 2- or 3-loculed; ovules many per locule, amphitropous. Fruit a berry, with persistent sepals at apex. Seed usually 1, embryo straight, with 2 fully or partly fused massive cotyledons.

<==Eugenia Linnaeus 1753 A61
    `--E. sect. Racemosae MS09
         |--E. breviracemosa Mazine in Mazine & Souza 2009 MS09
         |--E. caducibracteata Mazine in Mazine & Souza 2009 MS09
         |--E. pallidopunctata Mazine in Mazine & Souza 2009 MS09
         `--E. tenuiflora Mazine in Mazine & Souza 2009 MS09

Eugenia incertae sedis:
  E. aquea [=Syzygium aqueum] P88
  E. aromatica ZB01
  E. brasiliensis MS09
  E. brownsbergii MS09
  E. buxifolia G17
  E. caryophyllus P88
  E. christii J87
  E. firma S02
  E. foetida J87
  E. formonica J87
  E. gambolana BP60
  E. glabrata J87
  E. grandis P88
  E. inundata MS09
  E. jaboticaba H01
  E. lineata J87
  E. longiracemosa MS09
  E. maire Cunn. 1839 A61
  E. malaccensis P88 [=Jambosa malaccensis C55, Syzygium malaccense P88]
  E. orbignyana MS09
  E. picardae J87
  E. pruniformis MS09
  E. reinwardtiana LK14
  E. smithii B88
  E. stictosepala MP00
  E. tiburona J87
  E. uniflora MS09

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[A61] Allan, H. H. 1961. Flora of New Zealand vol. 1. Indigenous Tracheophyta: Psilopsida, Lycopsida, Filicopsida, Gymnospermae, Dicotyledones. R. E. Owen, Government Printer: Wellington (New Zealand).

[BP60] Baker, E. W., & A. E. Pritchard. 1960. The tetranychoid mites of Africa. Hilgardia 29 (11): 455–574.

[B88] Bouček, Z. 1988. Australasian Chalcidoidea (Hymenoptera): A biosystematic revision of genera of fourteen families, with a reclassification of species. CAB International: Wallingford (UK).

[C55] Candolle, A. de. 1855. Géographie Botanique Raisonée: Ou exposition des faits principaux et des lois concernant la distribution géographique des plantes de l’époque actuelle vol. 2. Librairie de Victor Masson: Paris.

[G17] Girault, A. A. 1917. New chalcid flies. Privately published (reprinted Gordh, G., A. S. Menke, E. C. Dahms & J. C. Hall. 1979. The privately printed papers of A. A. Girault. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute 28: 72–77).

[H01] Hempel, A. 1901. Descriptions of Brazilian Coccidae (continued). Annals and Magazine of Natural History, series 7, 7: 206–219.

[J87] Judd, W. S. 1987. Floristic study of Morne La Visite and Pic Macaya National Parks, Haiti. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum—Biological Sciences 32 (1): 1–136.

[LK14] Lyons, M. N., G. J. Keighery, L. A. Gibson & T. Handasyde. 2014. Flora and vegetation communities of selected islands off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 81: 205–244.

[MP00] Machado, G., & M. A. Pizo. 2000. The use of fruits by the neotropical harvestman Neosadocus variabilis (Opiliones, Laniatores, Gonyleptidae). Journal of Arachnology 28: 357–360.

[MS09] Mazine, F. F., & V. C. Souza. 2009. New species of Eugenia sect. Racemosae (Myrtaceae) from Brazilian Amazon rainforest. Kew Bulletin 64 (1): 147–153.

[P88] Polunin, I. 1988. Plants and Flowers of Malaysia. Times Editions: Singapore.

[S02] Smetacek, P. 2002. Notes on new records of hooktip moths, Lepidoptera: Drepanidae, from the Kumaon and Garhwal Himalaya. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 99 (3): 446–454.

[ZB01] Zhang, N., & M. Blackwell. 2001. Molecular phylogeny of dogwood anthracnose fungus (Discula destructiva) and the Diaporthales. Mycologia 93 (2): 355–365.

Last updated: 16 May 2021.