Publications [#294012] of Robert L. Wilbur

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Papers Published

  1. Wilbur, RL, The identity and history of Myrica caroliniensis (Myricaceae), Rhodora, vol. 104 no. 917 (December, 2002), pp. 31-41 [Gateway.cgi] .
    (last updated on 2022/11/20)

    Abstract:
    The protologue of Myrica caroliniensis is more than adequate to identify it as depicting the bayberry ranging at least from southern New Jersey to Florida and westward into eastern Texas. That species has been mostly known for the past half century as M. heterophylla. The alleged differences between the commonly recognized and more northern populations known most recently as M. pensylvanica (presumably ranging from New-foundland at least into northeastern North Carolina) are that the southern elements have more persistent to even evergreen leaves and lack the minute trichomes on both the hardened fruit wall and the young glandular projections or papillae that completely cover the young to just maturing fruit of the northern representatives. The pubescence on the fruit cannot be readily detected on mature fruit due to its heavy deposit of wax. The alleged differences, which seem to be more like tendencies than sharply delineated differences, are not of specific significance any more than those suggested between the northern and southern populations of Magnolia virginiana. The name for the bayberry that ranges from Newfoundland south into Florida and westward into eastern Texas should therefore be Myrica caroliniensis, the binomial by which it was known throughout most of the nineteenth century. It has been rather conclusively demonstrated that the waxy fruited, papillate species ought to be placed in the genus Morella, clearly separate from the genus Myrica with the latter's smooth, non-papillate, non-waxy nutlet.