Myrtaceae
Myrtus

Myrtus communis L.

First published in Sp. Pl.: 471 (1753)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is Macaronesia to Pakistan. It is a shrub or tree and grows primarily in the subtropical biome. It is used as a medicine and invertebrate food, has environmental uses and for fuel and food.

Distribution

Native to:

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Azores, Baleares, Canary Is., Corse, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kriti, Lebanon-Syria, Libya, Madeira, Morocco, Pakistan, Palestine, Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, Yemen, Yugoslavia

Introduced into:

California, Cape Provinces, Cuba, Leeward Is., Louisiana, Puerto Rico, Texas, Windward Is.

Accepted Infraspecifics

Classification

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Publications

POWO follows these authorities in accepting this name:

  • Davidse, G. & al. (eds.) (2009). Flora Mesoamericana 4(1): 1-855. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, D.F.
  • Govaerts, R. (2003). World Checklist of Selected Plant Families Database in ACCESS: 1-216203. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  • Govaerts, R., Sobral, N., Ashton, P., Barrie, F., Holst, B.K., Landrum, L.L., Matsumoto, K., Fernanda Mazine, F., Nic Lughadha, E., Proença, C. & al. (2008). World Checklist of Myrtaceae: 1-455. Kew Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  • Mehboob-ur-Rahman (2012). Wild plants of Swat, Pakistan 1: 1-281. Department of botany, govt. Jehanzeb post graduate college.
  • Muer, T., Sauerbier, H. & Cabrara Calixto, F. (2020). Die Farn- und Blütenpflanzen Madeiras: 1-792. Verlag und Versandbuchhandlung Andreas Kleinsteuber.
  • Schäfer, H. (2021). Flora of the Azores a field guide: 1-445. Margraf Publishers GmbH.
  • Zervous, S., Raus, T. & Yannitsaros, A. (2009). Additons to the flora of the island of Kalimnos (SE Aegean, Greece). Willdenowia 39: 165-177.

Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia

  • Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R. & Celis, M. (eds.). 2015. Catálogo de plantas y líquenes de Colombia. Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. http://catalogoplantasdecolombia.unal.edu.co

Kew Backbone Distributions

  • Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. & Strong, M.T. (2012). Catalogue of seed plants of the West Indies. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98: 1-1192.
  • Flora of North America Editorial Committee (2021). Flora of North America North of Mexico 10: 1-456. Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford.
  • Mehboob-ur-Rahman (2012). Wild plants of Swat, Pakistan 1: 1-281. Department of botany, govt. Jehanzeb post graduate college.

Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia

  • Allen, D., Bilz, M., Leaman, D.J., Miller, R.M., Timoshyna, A., & Window, J. (2014). European Red List of medicinal plants. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg 10:907382.
  • Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R., & Celis, M. (eds.). (2020). Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia. v1.1. Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Dataset/Checklist. https://doi.org/10.15472/7avdhn
  • Diazgranados et al. (2021). Catalogue of plants of Colombia. Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia project. In prep.
  • Diazgranados, M., Allkin, B., Black N., Cámara-Leret, R., Canteiro C., Carretero J., Eastwood R., Hargreaves S., Hudson A., Milliken W., Nesbitt, M., Ondo, I., Patmore, K., Pironon, S., Turner, R., Ulian, T. (2020). World Checklist of Useful Plant Species. Produced by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity.
  • FPI (2021). Food Plants International. https://fms.cmsvr.com/fmi/webd/Food_Plants_World?homeurl=https://foodplantsinternational.com/plants/
  • GBIF.org (2021). GBIF species matching tool. https://www.gbif.org/tools/species-lookup
  • GRIN (2021). Germplasm Resources Information Network from the United States Department of Agriculture. https://www.ars-grin.gov/
  • IUCN (2021). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2021-2. https://www.iucnredlist.org.
  • Medicinal Plant Names Services (MPNS) v.10 (2021); http://mpns.kew.org/
  • PROTA (2021). Plants Resources of Tropical Africa. https://prota4u.org/database/
  • Plants for malaria, plants for fever: Medicinal species in Latin America, a bibliographic survey: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  • RBG, Kew (2021). Kew Economic Botany Collection. https://ecbot.science.kew.org/
  • RBG, Kew (ed.) (1999). Survey of Economic Plants for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (SEPASAL) database. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London.
  • Willis, K.J. (ed.) (2017). State of the World’s Plants 2017. Report. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Other Data

Other Kew resources that provide information on this taxon:

Date Reference Identified As Barcode Type Status Has image?
Nov 8, 2011 Rico, L.; Birmingham MSc group 2007 [2267] Syria K000764211 Yes
France K:SPC-70000.365 No

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia

    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Colombian resources for Plants made Accessible

    • ColPlantA 2021. Published on the Internet at http://colplanta.org
    • https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

  • Flora of Tropical East Africa

    • Flora of Tropical East Africa
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • IUCN Categories

    • IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2024. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Living Collection Database

    • Common Names from Plants and People Africa http://www.plantsandpeopleafrica.com/

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2024. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Science Photographs

    • Copyright applied to individual images

  • Universidad Nacional de Colombia

    • ColPlantA database
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia

    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0