WOOD ANATOMY OF MYRCIARIA, NEOMITRANTHES, PLINIA AND SIPHONEUGENA SPECIES (MYRTEAE, MYRTACEAE)

Abstract

Myrciaria, Neomitranthes, Plinia and Siphoneugena are closely related genera whose circumscriptions are controversial. The distinctions between Myrciaria vs. Plinia, and Neomitranthes vs. Siphoneugena, have been based on a few fruit characters. The wood anatomy of 24 species of these genera was examined to determine if wood anatomical features could help delimit the genera. It was determined the four genera cannot reliably be separated by wood anatomy alone. Characteristics seen in all four genera are: growth rings usually poorly-defined; diffuse porous; exclusively solitary vessels, usually circular to oval in outline; simple perforation plates; vessel-ray pits alternate and distinctly bordered; fibers with distinctly bordered pits in radial and tangential walls, usually very thickwalled; vasicentric tracheids typically absent; scanty paratracheal parenchyma, sometimes unilateral, and diffuse to diffuse-in-aggregates; chambered crystalliferous axial parenchyma in many species, usually both prismatic and smaller crystals; rays 1–4-seriate, uniseriate rays composed of upright/square cells, multiseriate rays with procumbent body cells and 1 to many marginal rows of upright/square cells; disjunctive ray parenchyma cells usually present.