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Australian Systematic Botany Australian Systematic Botany Society
Taxonomy, biogeography and evolution of plants
RESEARCH ARTICLE

An annotated checklist of Syzygium subgenus Sequestratum (Myrtaceae)

Virva M. M. Lyytikäinen A B # , Sebastian A. Hatt https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4887-3508 A # * , Yee Wen Low https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0939-9068 A C , David F. R. P. Burslem B and Eve J. Lucas A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London, UK.

B School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.

C Singapore Botanic Gardens, National Parks Board, Singapore.

* Correspondence to: s.hatt@kew.org
# Joint first authors.

Handling Editor: Peter Wilson

Australian Systematic Botany 37, SB24006 https://doi.org/10.1071/SB24006
Submitted: 3 April 2024  Accepted: 30 September 2024  Published: 23 October 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing.

Abstract

We present an annotated checklist of the 29 species comprising Syzygium subg. Sequestratum. Species in the subgenus were identified through a comprehensive review of herbarium specimens and relevant literature, including both historic taxonomic and regional revisions of Syzygium, and recent molecular phylogenetic analyses. No single character is diagnostic of subg. Sequestratum; instead, a combination of commonly occurring characters is used, including glaucescence in the hypanthium, funnel-shaped flowers <10 mm long and coriaceous leaves with dark drying petioles in contrast to a paler lamina. Species are distributed across East Asia, Malesia and Eastern Australia, with an apparent preference for nutrient-poor habitats. This checklist provides a foundation for future taxonomic revision of this clade, from an early branching node in the tree of life of the world’s largest tropical tree genus.

Keywords: antisepticum, bankense, checklist, fibre bundles, Myrtaceae, Sequestratum, Syzygium, zeylanicum.

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