Myoporum
laetum
Woody
plants, mainly natives of Australia but also represented by scattered species in
the W. Indies, Japan, China, Hawaiian Islands. and elsewhere; genera 5 and
species about 90. Shrubs or trees, glandular or woolly; lvs. alternate or
rarely opposite, simple, entire or rarely toothed; fls. bisexual, regular or
irregular, axillary, solitary or fascicled, subsessile or pedicillate; calyx
5-parted or cleft, persistent; corolla gamopetalous, the limb 5-6-lobed,
sometimes bilabiate; stamens 4, didynamous, the fifth represented by a
staminode, epipetalous; ovary superior, 2-celled or falsely 3-10 celled; ovules
usually 1-2, rarely 8 in a cell; style 1, stigmas 1-2; fr. drupaceous.
Related to Scrophulariaceae and the Verbenaceae, the distinctive
characters being the presence of oil-glands, the few ovules and the pendulous
seeds. (Bailey 924).
Upper
Newport Bay species within the Family: