Myrtus obcordata (Raoul) Hook. f.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Myrtus obcordata' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/myrtus/myrtus-obcordata/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

Genus

Synonyms

  • Eugenia obcordata Raoul
  • Lophomyrtus obcordata (Raoul) Burret

Glossary

calyx
(pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
apex
(pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
berry
Fleshy indehiscent fruit with seed(s) immersed in pulp.
ciliate
Fringed with long hairs.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
ovate
Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Myrtus obcordata' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/myrtus/myrtus-obcordata/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

An evergreen shrub 10 to 15 ft high of dense, very twiggy habit; young shoots downy. Leaves opposite, obcordate (i.e., inversely heart-shaped), conspicuously notched at the apex, tapered to the short downy stalk; otherwise glabrous; usually 15 to 12 in. long, 14 to 38 in. wide; dark green above, pale and dotted with oil-glands beneath. Flowers 14 in. wide, dull white, solitary, produced from the axils of the leaves on a slender downy stalk 13 to 12 in. long. Calyx four-lobed, the lobes ovate, the tube downy; petals four, round, ciliate; stamens very numerous and the chief attraction of the flower. Fruit a dark red or violet subglobose berry, 14 in. wide.

Native of New Zealand; introduced long ago. This pleasing shrub just misses being hardy at Kew, but survives the winters safely thirty or forty miles south of London. In the gardens of the south-west it is quite at home. It rarely blossoms with freedom, and if it did the flowers would not add much to the attractiveness of the plant. This is mainly to be found in its neat habit, slender branching, and in the plenitude of its small, unusually shaped leaves.