Synonyms: Rapanea APNI*
Description: Shrubs or small trees, buds covered with rusty or brownish hairs, stems often rough from the stubs left after inflorescences and leaves fall.
Leaves leathery, often with translucent or coloured dots (dots visible with a hand lens if the leaf is held against a strong light).
Flowers in short axillary clusters, often formed on the old wood below the leaves. Calyx and corolla 4- or 5-lobed, calyx persistent.
Drupe ± globose, usually pedicellate.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 200 species, tropical & subtropical regions. Australia: 24 species, Qld, N.S.W., Vic.
Text by G.J. Harden, as Rapanea, Flora NSW Vol. 1 (1990)
Taxon concept: Australian Plant Census (accessed March 2017)
Taxa not yet included in identification key
Myrsine mccomishii,
Myrsine myrtillina,
Myrsine platystigma
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Petiole >3mm long; fruit blue to mauve, pedicel usually >3 mm long: leaves entire or toothed | 2 |
| Petiole <3 mm long; fruit black, on pedicel mostly <2 mm long; leaves entire | Myrsine subsessilis |
| 2 | Petiole 7–20 mm long: terminal buds rusty hairy (red-furry) | Myrsine howittiana |
| Petiole 3–7 mm long; terminal buds glabrous or hairy with white to brownish hairs, but not red-furry
Back to 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Leaves glossy, leathery, margins usually toothed with stiff teeth, not undulate, mostly oblanceolate; flowers mostly 4-merous; widespread in rainforest and open forest north from Milton | Myrsine variabilis |
| Leaves not glossy, not leathery, margins entire and undulate, mostly elliptic; flowers usually 5-merous; grows in or on the ecotone of subtropical rainforest on the north coast, from the Richmond R. to the Mt Warning area
Back to 2 | Myrsine richmondensis |
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