Luma apiculata
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Luma apiculata' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Synonyms
- Myrceugenia apiculata (DC.) Nied.
- Eugenia apiculata DC.
- Myrceugenella apiculata (DC.) Kausel
Editorial Note
Treated by Bean under the incorrect name Myrtus luma Molina, which is a synonym of the five-petalled Amomyrtus luma (Molina) D.Legrand & Kausel.
A bush 3 to 20 ft high or a tree up to 60 ft high, with a flaking, cinnamon-coloured bark; young branches brown, downy. Leaves opposite, very shortly stalked, broad-elliptic, cuneate at the base, acute and apiculate at the apex, 3⁄4 to 1 in. long, rather more than half as wide, or sometimes slightly longer and more narrowly elliptic, thinly leathery, deep green above, paler below, glabrous except for down on the midrib beneath and on the margins of the basal part of the leaf. Flowers axillary, mostly solitary on pedicels 3⁄8 to 5⁄8 in. long, bearing two small deciduous bracteoles close to the flower, but sometimes in a three-flowered cyme, with each bracteole subtending a shortly stalked flower. Sepals four, broad-oblong, rounded. Petals white, almost orbicular, about 1⁄2 in. long, strongly concave. Stamens very numerous, with yellow anthers, forming a boss in the centre of the flower. Fruits fleshy, globose, 3⁄8 in. or slightly less wide, dark purple, three-celled, with one or two seeds in each cell. Bot. Mag., t. 5040.
Native of the temperate forests of Chile and Argentina; introduced by William Lobb in 1844. In Cornwall and in the milder parts of Ireland this beautiful tree has made itself very much at home, growing as happily as in its native country and producing in many gardens innumerable self-sown seedlings. In Abbotsbury, Dorset there are specimens measuring 40 × 23⁄4 + 21⁄2 ft (New Garden) and 44 × 13⁄4 + 13⁄4 ft (Round Garden) (1980); at Penloe Park, Penzance, 42 × 41⁄2 ft (1979); at Castle Kennedy, Wigt., 36 × 3 ft (1979); and at Stonefield, Argyll, 30 × 2 ft (1981). At Mourne Park, Co. Down, there are two many-stemmed specimens 48 and 46 ft high (1983). Large specimens have also been measured at Lanarth, Trengwainton and Trelowarren (Cornwall), Tresco Abbey (Isles of Scilly), Castlewellan (Northern Ireland), Kilmacurragh, Co. Wicklow, Fota, Ardnagashel, Garinish Island, Co. Cork and Inishtioge, Co. Kilkenny (Republic of Ireland).
This myrtle is perhaps at its most beautiful when drawn up by neighbouring trees, for the bark is then better displayed than on trees grown in the open, which, as at Trengwainton, usually have shorter stems and bushier crowns. There is a fine group of closely planted trees at Tresco Abbey.
In Argentina there is a picturesque stand of gnarled trees near the holiday resort of Bariloche, much frequented by tourists, and others in the same region which are under state protection. The tree yields a dense timber resembling that of the common box (Tortorelli, Maderas y Basques Argentinos, p. 571).
This species was, until the 1940s, usually placed in the closely related genus Myrceugenia as M. apiculata (DC.) Niedenzu.
'Glanleam Gold'
Margin of leaves creamy yellow, flushed with red when young. This arose as a self-sown seedling in Colonel Uniacke’s garden at Glanleam on Valentia Island, Eire, and was introduced to Britain by Messrs Treseder early in the 1970s (An Irish Flower Garden, p. 115).