Myrtus communis L.

First published in Sp. Pl.: 471 (1753)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is Macaronesia to Pakistan. It is a shrub or tree and grows primarily in the subtropical biome. It is used as a medicine and invertebrate food, has environmental uses and for fuel and food.

Distribution

Native to:

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Azores, Baleares, Canary Is., Corse, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kriti, Lebanon-Syria, Libya, Madeira, Morocco, Pakistan, Palestine, Portugal, Sardegna, Saudi Arabia, Sicilia, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, Yemen, Yugoslavia

Introduced into:

California, Cape Provinces, Cuba, Leeward Is., Louisiana, Puerto Rico, Texas, Windward Is.

Accepted Infraspecifics

Classification

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PAFTOL

POWO follows these authorities in accepting this name:

  • Davidse, G. & al. (eds.) (2009). Flora Mesoamericana 4(1): 1-855. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, D.F.
  • Govaerts, R. (2003). World Checklist of Selected Plant Families Database in ACCESS: 1-216203. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  • Govaerts, R., Sobral, N., Ashton, P., Barrie, F., Holst, B.K., Landrum, L.L., Matsumoto, K., Fernanda Mazine, F., Nic Lughadha, E., Proença, C. & al. (2008). World Checklist of Myrtaceae: 1-455. Kew Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  • Mehboob-ur-Rahman (2012). Wild plants of Swat, Pakistan 1: 1-281. Department of botany, govt. Jehanzeb post graduate college.
  • Muer, T., Sauerbier, H. & Cabrara Calixto, F. (2020). Die Farn- und Blütenpflanzen Madeiras: 1-792. Verlag und Versandbuchhandlung Andreas Kleinsteuber.
  • Schäfer, H. (2021). Flora of the Azores a field guide: 1-445. Margraf Publishers GmbH.
  • Zervous, S., Raus, T. & Yannitsaros, A. (2009). Additons to the flora of the island of Kalimnos (SE Aegean, Greece). Willdenowia 39: 165-177.

Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia

  • Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R. & Celis, M. (eds.). 2015. Catálogo de plantas y líquenes de Colombia. Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. http://catalogoplantasdecolombia.unal.edu.co

Kew Backbone Distributions

  • Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. & Strong, M.T. (2012). Catalogue of seed plants of the West Indies. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98: 1-1192.
  • Flora of North America Editorial Committee (2021). Flora of North America North of Mexico 10: 1-456. Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford.
  • Mehboob-ur-Rahman (2012). Wild plants of Swat, Pakistan 1: 1-281. Department of botany, govt. Jehanzeb post graduate college.

Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia

  • Allen, D., Bilz, M., Leaman, D.J., Miller, R.M., Timoshyna, A., & Window, J. (2014). European Red List of medicinal plants. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg 10:907382.
  • Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R., & Celis, M. (eds.). (2020). Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia. v1.1. Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Dataset/Checklist. https://doi.org/10.15472/7avdhn
  • Diazgranados et al. (2021). Catalogue of plants of Colombia. Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia project. In prep.
  • Diazgranados, M., Allkin, B., Black N., Cámara-Leret, R., Canteiro C., Carretero J., Eastwood R., Hargreaves S., Hudson A., Milliken W., Nesbitt, M., Ondo, I., Patmore, K., Pironon, S., Turner, R., Ulian, T. (2020). World Checklist of Useful Plant Species. Produced by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity.
  • FPI (2021). Food Plants International. https://fms.cmsvr.com/fmi/webd/Food_Plants_World?homeurl=https://foodplantsinternational.com/plants/
  • GBIF.org (2021). GBIF species matching tool. https://www.gbif.org/tools/species-lookup
  • GRIN (2021). Germplasm Resources Information Network from the United States Department of Agriculture. https://www.ars-grin.gov/
  • IUCN (2021). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2021-2. https://www.iucnredlist.org.
  • Medicinal Plant Names Services (MPNS) v.10 (2021); http://mpns.kew.org/
  • PROTA (2021). Plants Resources of Tropical Africa. https://prota4u.org/database/
  • Plants for malaria, plants for fever: Medicinal species in Latin America, a bibliographic survey: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  • RBG, Kew (2021). Kew Economic Botany Collection. https://ecbot.science.kew.org/
  • RBG, Kew (ed.) (1999). Survey of Economic Plants for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (SEPASAL) database. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London.
  • Willis, K.J. (ed.) (2017). State of the World’s Plants 2017. Report. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Other Data

Other Kew resources that provide information on this taxon:

Date Reference Identified As Barcode Type Status Has image?
Nov 8, 2011 Rico, L.; Birmingham MSc group 2007 [2267] Syria K000764211 Yes
Helbaek, H. [22] Lebanon K004205250 Yes
Lindberg, H. [s.n.] Cyprus K004205266 Yes
Manoog Haradjian [2202] Syria K004205243 Yes
Chapman, G.W. [20] Syria K004205244 Yes
Wheeler Haines, R. [W234] Iraq K004205276 Yes
Syngrassides, A. [190] Cyprus K004205261 Yes
Trott, A.C. [1195] Iran K004205294 Yes
Bornmüller, J. [3508] Iran K004205293 Yes
Hu, S.Y. [13688] Hong Kong K004205422 Yes
s.coll. [s.n.] K004205430 Yes
Economides, S. [4] Cyprus K004205270 Yes
Drummond, J.R. [s.n.] India K004205428 Yes
France K:SPC-70000.365 No
Aucher-Eloy [4498] Iran K004205289 Yes
Rogers, F.A. [0602] Iraq K004205279 Yes
[C Bush] [16] Cyprus K004205274 Yes
Meyers, F. [5105] Israel K004205254 Yes
Manoog Haradjian [3098] Syria K004205245 Yes
s.coll. [s.n.] K004205425 Yes
s.coll. [s.n.] Iraq K004205283 Yes
Merton, L.F.H. [ARI40] Cyprus K004205268 Yes
Atherton, G.E. [215] Cyprus K004205275 Yes
Maconochie, J.R. [3674] Oman K004205287 Yes
s.coll. [s.n.] Cyprus K004205260 Yes
Manoog Haradjian [489] Cyprus K004205272 Yes
Chapman, G.W. [9356] Iraq K004205277 Yes
Ferguson, I.K.; Ferguson, L.F. [4549] Cyprus K004205267 Yes
Chapman, G.W. [9356] Iraq K004205280 Yes
{Miss Osborne} [252] Lebanon K004205247 Yes
Merton, L.F.H. [2841] Cyprus K004205262 Yes
s.coll. [s.n.] K004205426 Yes
Atherton, G.E. [376] Cyprus K004205269 Yes
Haussknecht, C. [s.n.] Syria K004205249 Yes
Holland, F.W. [s.n.] Egypt K004205258 Yes
s.coll. [s.n.] Japan K004205421 Yes
Rogers, F.A. (Rev.) [0602] Syria K004205248 Yes
Lawton, R.M. [2438] Oman K004205286 Yes
s.coll. [s.n.] China K004205423 Yes
Haussknecht, C. [s.n.] Iran K004205290 Yes
s.coll. [s.n.] India K004205424 Yes
Miller, A.G. [6630] Oman K004205285 Yes
s.coll. [s.n.] Iraq K004205282 Yes
Hayne, W.A. [s.n.] Israel K004205256 Yes
Davis; Bokhari [D55836] Iran K004205278 Yes
Hooker, J.D.; Hanbury, D. [s.n.] Syria K004205246 Yes
s.coll. [[14]] Jordan K004205257 Yes
Duthie, J.F. [18847] India K004205427 Yes
[C Bush] [17] Cyprus K004205273 Yes
Brown, E.S. [3501] Iran K004205288 Yes
Atherton, G.E. [710] Cyprus K004205264 Yes
Hikmat Abbas-al-Ani [s.n.] Iraq K004205284 Yes
{Miss Mapple} [27] Cyprus K004205259 Yes
s.coll. [839] India K004205429 Yes
Kennedy, E.W. [657] Cyprus K004205263 Yes
s.coll. [s.n.] Iraq K004205281 Yes
Atherton, G.E. [92] Cyprus K004205265 Yes
Sparrow, C.E.H. [43] Cyprus K004205271 Yes

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
  • Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia

    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
  • Colombian resources for Plants made Accessible

    • ColPlantA 2021. Published on the Internet at http://colplanta.org
    • https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
  • Flora of Tropical East Africa

    • Flora of Tropical East Africa
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • 'The Herbarium Catalogue, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet http://www.kew.org/herbcat [accessed on Day Month Year]'. Please enter the date on which you consulted the system.
    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
  • IUCN Categories

    • IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
  • Kew Living Collection Database

    • Common Names from Plants and People Africa http://www.plantsandpeopleafrica.com/
  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
  • Kew Science Photographs

    • Copyright applied to individual images
  • Universidad Nacional de Colombia

    • ColPlantA database
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
  • Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia

    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0