Characteristic morphological features

The wood of all Myrtales is characterized by the presence of phloem tissue on each side of the xylem vessels (included, intraxylary phloem), in contrast with the presence of only one phloem layer in most angiosperms. In Myrtales the pits of vessels have a sievelike appearance because of minute outgrowths from their borders, which arch over the pit cavity. Bordered pits with such processes are called vestured pits. This combination of wood anatomical characteristics is otherwise very rare in angiosperms and is used to help define the order.

An unusual feature seen in most species of Eucalyptus and some other members of Myrtaceae is the presence of lignotubers. These organs are large, woody, rounded outgrowths, up to several centimetres in diameter, surrounding the base of the young tree trunk. The lignotuber consists of a mass of vegetative buds and associated vascular tissue and contains substantial food reserves. If the top of a seedling, which has developed a lignotuber, is destroyed by fire, drought, or grazing, growth is vigorously renewed by the development of new shoots from the lignotuber. It is evident that this organ is of considerable value in an environment where fire and drought are frequent.

The root systems of mangroves that grow in tidal mudflats, such as Sonneratia (family Lythraceae) and Laguncularia (family Combretaceae), are characterized by the presence of “breathing roots” known as pneumatophores. These portions of the root grow upward until they project some centimetres above the low-tide level. They have small openings called lenticels in their bark so that air can reach the rest of the plant’s root system. Another feature of most mangroves is aerial prop roots, which form a tangled jungle, even after the main roots and stem bases of the trees have decayed.

In the Onagraceae family, a similar adaptation to an oxygen-deficient environment is seen in Ludwigia, a genus of plants found in wet areas. When plants grow in water, air spaces develop in the tissues of the roots and submerged stems, and in L. repens special spongy-tissued respiratory roots grow to the surface of the water. Under ordinary dry-land conditions, however, the same plants do not exhibit these features. Loose internal cell tissue that contains air spaces also occurs in the submerged portions of the stems and roots of marsh-inhabiting species of the family Melastomataceae.

Most members of the order bear opposite, simple, and entire leaves, but there is considerable variation in leaf arrangement between families and within species or even individuals. For example, within a single genus, Quisqualis (family Combretaceae), alternate leaves are borne on the stem, and opposite leaves are borne on the flowering shoots. In Eucalyptus, young branches have opposite leaves, whereas the leaf arrangement on older branches is alternate.

Whorled leaves occur in a few genera, and quite often the leaves are disjunct-opposite, or “scattered,” as in many species in Myrtaceae, Onagraceae, and Combretaceae and some in Lythraceae. In most of the families in the order, stipules are diminutive, only rarely reaching a length of more than a few millimetres; they are absent in Combretaceae, Onagraceae, and Melastomataceae. The upper leaves of Trapa and some Ludwigia species have inflated petioles that act as a float, while the submerged leaves are finely divided and resemble roots. In most Melastomataceae and in some Myrtaceae, there are several main secondary veins that branch out from the base of the blade and many tertiary veins that run in a transverse pattern across the leaf blade. This venation pattern gives the leaves of nearly all members of Melastomataceae a highly characteristic appearance. Leaves of Myrtaceae species are further characterized by large scattered oil-containing cells that are visible as translucent spots when the leaves are held up to the light.

The inflorescences found in Myrtales are extremely variable, but the panicle seems especially frequent. In some members of Myrtaceae and Melastomataceae, flowers and fruits are borne directly on the old wood of the trunk; this is known as a cauliflory. The flowers of most species of Myrtales are bisexual (i.e., they have both male and female parts in the same flower), but those of some species of Myrtales, such as Eucalyptus calophylla, Pimenta dioica, some Sonneratia species, and a very few members of Melastomataceae and Crypteroniaceae, have flowers of only one sex; structures of the opposite sex, though originally present, fail to mature in these cases.

In Myrtales the floral tube, known as the hypanthium, surrounds the ovary either tightly or loosely or is fused to the ovary walls for varying lengths. The rim of the hypanthium bears calyx lobes (free sepals), petals, and either one or two whorls of stamens or numerous stamens. Flowers in which the flower parts appear to arise at the top of the ovary rather than at its base (epigynous) are considered the most advanced, and perigyny (the flower parts appear to arise at the same level as the ovary) is undoubtedly the ancestral condition in Myrtales. The flowers commonly contain four or five parts (four- or five-merous) and very often have two whorls of stamens or stamens grouped in fascicles (bundles). The calyx lobes are sometimes shed as a cap when the flower blooms; the cap may be woody (Eucalyptus) or herbaceous (several genera of Melastomataceae). Flowers of Vochysiaceae are most unusual in the order, with fertile stamen number reduced to one in some species.

Myrtales pollen is usually in the two-celled state when mature and liberated from the anthers; i.e., it consists of a large vegetative or pollen tube cell and a smaller generative cell. Only in Combretaceae do some species have three-celled pollen grains (with the generative cell having divided to form the two sperm cells). Members of Onagraceae are very distinct in the order in their pollen characteristics. In most flowering plants, the four haploid cells resulting from the nuclear reduction divisions (meiosis) in the anthers, and from which the pollen grains (the male gametophytes) develop, remain joined together for only a very brief period before separating as four individual pollen grains. In Onagraceae, however, they often form tetrads (groups of four joined at their corners), and, in most members of the family, the pollen is furthermore connected by viscid threads that stick to a visiting insect; thus, hundreds of pollen grains are drawn out of the anther at the same time.

Following fertilization, nuclear endosperm, a tissue with nutritive function for the developing embryo, is formed in the embryo sac. This tissue is depleted during seed development, and the mature seeds are generally without any or with a very thin layer of endosperm. In the water chestnut, however, endosperm formation hardly takes place. Instead, the embryo sac becomes prolonged and invades the surrounding tissues, from which the embryo is then supplied with nutrients. Although normally the embryo in Myrtales species has two cotyledons and stores fatty oils and aleurone, the water chestnut has only a single rudimentary cotyledon, and the embryo stores starch. Starchy embryos also occur in some Myrtaceae species.

In Eucalyptus, only relatively few of the ovules present in each ovary develop into seeds; the majority are sterile. The sterile ovules, called ovulodes, remain small and form chaff. The amount of mature seed to chaff by weight is often as little as 5 percent. Polyembryony, the presence of several embryos in each seed, on the other hand, occurs in several families of the order and is very common in myrtle and the genus Eugenia (including the Brazilian and Surinam cherries). In E. paniculata, up to 21 embryos have been found in a seed, and it is unusual for there to be only one.

Vivipary, a feature of mangroves such as Sonneratia and Laguncularia, is seed germination inside the fruit while it is still retained on the tree; following the growth of the seed leaves, the root end of the embryo elongates and passes through the opening in the seed (micropyle) and then through the ovary wall. It may grow a considerable length before the seedling drops into the mud, where it establishes itself at once.