The Pollen Morphology of the New Zealand Species of the Myrtaceae

Abstract

The family Myrtaceae contains some 80 genera with about 3000 species, mostly tropical and subtropical. Five genera with a total of 18 species occur in the New Zealand region and all species are apparently endemic (Allan, 1961). The genera Neomyrtus (one species) and Lophomyrtus (two species) are endemic to New Zealand. The eleven species of Metrosideros in the region, including one from the Kermadec Islands, constitute about half the total number of species in that genus, which occurs also in Australia, Polynesia and Indo-Malaya. Of the 35 species of the predominantly Australian genus Leptospermum three are found in New Zealand, and of approximately 800 species of the genus Eugenia New Zealand has one only.