''Rhodomyrtus'' is a group of shrubs and trees in the family

Myrtaceae Myrtaceae (), the myrtle family, is a family of dicotyledonous plants placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, pōhutukawa, bay rum tree, clove, guava, acca (feijoa), allspice, and eucalyptus are some notable members of this group. All ...

, described as a genus in 1841 and native to southern China, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia,

Melanesia Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from New Guinea in the west to the Fiji Islands in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Vanu ...

, and Australia. Its greatest levels of diversity are in New Guinea and northeastern Australia. Snow et al. confirmed in 2008 that the genus is

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...

, i.e. it includes taxa that do not have a common predecessor, and they recommended more detailed DNA studies to determine if and how it should be split into two or more smaller

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

genera.

Species

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online taxonomic database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. History Following the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew launched Plants of the World Online i ...

accepts the following 22 species: * '' Rhodomyrtus effusa'' Guymer –

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

* '' Rhodomyrtus elegans'' (Blume) A.J. Scott –

Maluku Islands The Maluku Islands ( ; , ) or the Moluccas ( ; ) are an archipelago in the eastern part of Indonesia. Tectonics, Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located in West ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

* '' Rhodomyrtus guymeriana'' N.Snow & J.P.Atwood –

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

* '' Rhodomyrtus kaweaensis'' N.Snow – Papua New Guinea * '' Rhodomyrtus lanata'' Guymer – Papua New Guinea * '' Rhodomyrtus locellata'' (Guillaumin) Burret –

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

* '' Rhodomyrtus longisepala'' N. Snow & J. McFadden – Papua New Guinea * '' Rhodomyrtus macrocarpa'' Benth. – New Guinea,

Aru Islands Aru or ARU may refer to: Education * Alpha Rho Upsilon, a defunct fraternity in the United States * Anglia Ruskin University, a university in England * Ardhi University, a Tanzanian public university Places * Aru Islands Regency, a group of i ...

, Queensland * '' Rhodomyrtus mengenensis'' N.Snow – Papua New Guinea * '' Rhodomyrtus misimana'' N.Snow – Papua New Guinea * '' Rhodomyrtus montana'' Guymer –

Western New Guinea Western New Guinea, also known as Papua, Indonesian New Guinea, and Indonesian Papua, is the western half of the island of New Guinea, formerly Dutch and granted to Indonesia in 1962. Given the island is alternatively named Papua, the region ...

* '' Rhodomyrtus obovata'' C.T.White – Papua New Guinea * '' Rhodomyrtus pervagata'' Guymer – Queensland * '' Rhodomyrtus pinnatinervis'' C.T.White – New Guinea,

Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about . History The first inhabitants of the archipela ...

* '' Rhodomyrtus psidioides'' (G.Don) Benth. – Queensland,

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

* '' Rhodomyrtus salomonensis'' (C.T.White) A.J.Scott –

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

* '' Rhodomyrtus sericea'' Burret – Queensland * '' Rhodomyrtus surigaoensis'' Elmer –

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

* '' Rhodomyrtus takeuchii'' N.Snow & J.Cantley – Papua New Guinea * ''

Rhodomyrtus tomentosa ''Rhodomyrtus tomentosa'' also known as rose myrtle, is a flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae, native to southern and southeastern Asia, from India, east to southern China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Philippines, and south to Malaysia and Sul ...

'' (Aiton) Hassk. – India to southern China and Taiwan,

Indo-China Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to th ...

* '' Rhodomyrtus trineura'' (F.Muell.) Benth. – Maluku Islands, New Guinea, Bismarck Archipelago, Queensland * '' Rhodomyrtus verecunda'' – Queensland

References

Myrtaceae genera Taxa named by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle {{Myrtaceae-stub