Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Myricaceae

bayberry family, wax-myrtle family
Habit Shrubs or small trees, evergreen or deciduous, usually aromatic and resinous.
Roots

commonly with nitrogen-fixing nodules.
Leaves

blade commonly with peltate, multicellular, glandular trichomes.
Inflorescences

axillary catkins;

bracts present.
Flowers

usually unisexual, occasionally bisexual, staminate and pistillate flowers usually on different plants, occasionally on same plants;

perianth absent.
Staminate flowers

subtended by solitary bract;

stamens 2-14(-22), hypogynous or ± epigynous;

filaments filiform, distinct or basally connate;

anthers dorsifixed, 2-locular, extrorsely dehiscent by longitudinal slits.
Pistillate flowers

subtended by solitary bract, bracteoles present or absent, usually 2-4(-8);

pistils 1, 2-carpellate, 1-locular;

ovules 1, basal, erect;

styles, if present, short;

stigmas 2.
Fruits

drupaceous or nutlike, smooth or often covered with warty protuberances, these commonly with waxy coating;

fruits sometimes enclosed by persistent, accrescent bracts and bracteoles.
Seeds

with little or no endosperm;

embryo straight, with 2 plano-convex cotyledons.

Myricaceae
Distribution
Widespread in temperate and subtropical regions
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Genera 2-4, species ca. 50 (2 genera, 8 species in the flora).

Significant disagreement exists concerning the number of genera to be recognized in Myricaceae. Myrica in the broad sense is sometimes divided into three genera. Comptonia L'Héritier ex Aiton is often segregated on the basis of leaf type, presence of stipules, and the burlike fruits with 6-8 accrescent bracts and bracteoles. Morella Loureiro sometimes is elevated from its usual rank of subgenus to emphasize differences concerning position of the catkins, size of the staminate bracts, and appearance of the fruits (A. Chevalier 1901; J. R. Baird 1968). The real question is the appropriate rank at which recognition should be made (T. S. Elias 1971). I follow a traditional approach in recognizing just Myrica and Comptonia in North America.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Parent taxa
Subordinate taxa
Comptonia, Myrica
Key
1. Leaves entire or serrate-denticulate, stipules absent; fruiting catkins short-cylindric; bracteoles 2-6, broadly ovate and equal to or shorter than fruits, or absent.
Myrica
1. Leaves pinnatifid, stipules present; fruiting catkins globose-ovoid; bracteoles 2 at anthesis, linear-subulate, accrescent, developing 4-8 tertiary bracteoles, these much exceeding fruit.
Comptonia
Name authority Blume
Source FNA vol. 3, p. 429. Treatment author: Allan J. Bornstein.
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Boraginaceae and Polemoniaceae.)

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers