''Eugenia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the myrtle 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 speci ...

. It has a worldwide, although highly uneven, distribution in tropical and subtropical regions. The bulk of the approximately 1,100 species occur in the New World tropics, especially in the northern Andes, the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

, and the

Atlantic Forest The Atlantic Forest ( pt, Mata Atlântica) is a South American forest that extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the northeast to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south and inland as far as Paraguay and th ...

(coastal forests) of eastern Brazil. Other centers of diversity include

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and Madagascar. Many of the species that occur in the

Old World The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by the ...

have received a new

classification Classification is a process related to categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated and understood. Classification is the grouping of related facts into classes. It may also refer to: Business, organizat ...

into the genus '' Syzygium''. All species are woody evergreen trees and

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

s. Several are grown as ornamental plants for their attractive glossy foliage, and a few produce edible fruit that are eaten fresh or used in jams and jellies.

Taxonomy

The genus was named in honor of

Prince Eugene of Savoy Prince Eugene Francis of Savoy–Carignano, (18 October 1663 – 21 April 1736) better known as Prince Eugene, was a Generalfeldmarschall, field marshal in the army of the Holy Roman Empire and of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty during the 17th a ...

. Many species new to science have been and are in the process of being described from these regions. For example, 37 new species of ''Eugenia'' have been described from Mesoamerica in the past few years. At least 20 new species are currently in the process of being described from New Caledonia, and approximately the same number of species new to science may occur in Madagascar. Despite the enormous ecological importance of the myrtle family in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

(e.g. '' Eucalyptus'', ''

Corymbia ''Corymbia'', commonly known as bloodwoods, is a genus of about one hundred species of tree that, along with ''Eucalyptus'', '' Angophora'' and several smaller groups, are referred to as eucalypts. Until 1990, corymbias were included in the gen ...

'', ''

Angophora ''Angophora'' is a genus of nine species of trees and shrubs in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Endemic to eastern Australia, they differ from other eucalypts in having juvenile and adult leaves arranged in opposite pairs, sepals reduced to projec ...

'', ''

Melaleuca ''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of '' Leptospermum''). They range in size ...

'', ''

Callistemon ''Callistemon'' is a genus of shrubs in the family Myrtaceae, first described as a genus in 1814. The entire genus is endemic to Australia but widely cultivated in many other regions and naturalised in scattered locations. Their status as a se ...

'', ''

Rhodamnia ''Rhodamnia'' is a group of rainforest trees and shrubs in the myrtle family described as a genus in 1822.Govaerts, R., Sobral, N., Ashton, P., Barrie, F., Holst, B.K., Landrum, L.L., Matsumoto, K., Fernanda Mazine, F., Nic Lughadha, E., Proenç ...

'', '' Gossia''), only one species of ''Eugenia'', '' E. reinwardtiana'', occurs on that continent. The genus also is represented in Africa south of the

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, but it is relatively species-poor on that continent. In the past some

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

s included the morphologically similar

genus '' Syzygium'' in ''Eugenia'', but research by Rudolf Schmid in the early 1970s convinced most botanists that the genera are easily separable. Research by van Wyk and colleagues in South Africa suggests the genus may comprise at least two major lineages, recognizable by anatomical and other features.

Molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

studies have changed the historical circumscription of the genus. Many species formerly placed in ''Eugenia'' have been moved to '' Syzygium''. Two others have been reassigned to '' Pimenta.'' The

genera ''Hottea'', ''Calyptrogenia'' and ''Pseudanamomis'' were shown to be embedded in ''Eugenia''. The monotypic Indian genus ''Meteoromyrtus'' was also found to be part of ''Eugenia''.

Species

Selected species include:

Ecology

''Eugenia'' species are sometimes used as food plants by the larvae of hepialid moths of the genera '' Aenetus'' (including '' A. splendens'') and '' Endoclita'' (including '' E. damor'' and '' E. malabaricus''). '' Aenetus'' species burrow horizontally into the trunk then vertically down. Other

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) is an order (biology), order of insects that includes butterfly, butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 Family (biology), families and 46 Taxonomic r ...

larvae which feed on ''Eugenia'' include ''

Eupseudosoma aberrans ''Eupseudosoma aberrans'' is a moth of the family Erebidae first described by William Schaus in 1905. It is found in Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North Amer ...

'' and the snowy eupseudosoma.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q975998 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Pantropical flora