''Meryta'' is a genus in the

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of ...

family

Araliaceae The Araliaceae are a family of flowering plants composed of about 43 genera and around 1500 species consisting of primarily woody plants and some herbaceous plants. The morphology of Araliaceae varies widely, but it is predominantly distinguisha ...

. There are 28 described species in the genus and a number of undescribed species, all small, resinous trees of the subtropical and tropical

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

, characterized by huge, simple leaves and a dioecious

sexual system A sexual system is a pattern of sex allocation or a distribution of male and female function across organisms in a species. Terms like reproductive system and mating system have also been used as synonyms. The distinction between sexual systems ...

, a unique combination in Araliaceae. ''Meryta'' has its center of diversity in New Caledonia (11 endemic spp.). Phylogenetic analyses have placed ''Meryta'' as a

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic ...

genus in one of the three major clades of the Araliaciae, the

Polyscias ''Polyscias'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araliaceae. They bear pinnately compound leaves. In 2003, a checklist and nomenclator was published for Araliaceae.David G. Frodin and Rafaël Govaerts. 2003. ''World Checklist and Bibl ...

Pseudopanax ''Pseudopanax'' (Latin for "false ginseng") is a small genus of 12–20 species of evergreen plants, the majority of which are endemic to New Zealand. Flowers of the genus occur in terminal umbels. Taxonomy A 2000 molecular study established th ...

group, and more specifically in the Pacific Schefflera subclade.

Cultivation

Cultivation of ''Meryta'' species is possible in tropical or subtropical climates. They are valued for their dramatic foliage and tolerance of coastal conditions. Species encountered in cultivation include '' M. denhamii'' and ''M. sonchifolia'', native to New Caledonia, '' M. latifolia'', native to

Norfolk Island Norfolk Island (, ; Norfuk: ''Norf'k Ailen'') is an external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head and about from Lord Howe Island. Together w ...

, and the

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

species ''

Meryta sinclairii ''Meryta sinclairii'', the puka or pukanui, is a large-leaved evergreen tree endemic to New Zealand that grows to about 8 m tall, with the distinctly tropical appearance typical of the genus. There are about 27 species of '' Meryta'', all smal ...

''.

References

External links

Apiales genera Dioecious plants {{Araliaceae-stub