Myricaceae

Abstract

Shrubs or small trees, usually aromatic and resinous, evergreen or deciduous; roots commonly with nitrogen-fixing nodules. Trichomes of various kinds, eglandular ones elongate, unicellular, and colourless, glandular ones with a multicellular, basally embedded stalk and a multicellular peltate, later balloon-shaped head with golden-yellow content. Leaves alternate, simple, rarely pinnatifid, serrate to irregularly dentate; stipules absent except in Comptonia. Plants monoecious or dioecious. Flowers inconspicuous, unisexual, borne in spicate aments; each flower usually subtended by a bract, two bracteoles, and sometimes additional bracts; perianth generally absent, present in Canacomyrica; stamens 2–8 (very rarely up to 20), progressively fewer in the more distal flowers of the spike; anthers tetrasporangiate, extrorse, opening by longitudinal slits; gynoecium 2-carpellate, the ovary unilocular, superior (Comptonia), or ± inferior (other genera); styles distinct or united at the base; ovule solitary, orthotropous, unitegmic, crassinucellar, in Canacomyrica with an elongate, recurved micropylar tube. Fruit drupaceous, or almost a nutlet, often covered by variously shaped protuberances, frequently with a coating of wax, enclosed or not by persistent bracts. Seeds with little or no endosperm; embryo straight, dicotyledonous. x = 8.