Myrsine cubana (Myrsine punctata,  Rapanea punctata,  Myrsine guianensis  +++)

Myrsinaceae

Wandering through the sunny woodland today at Cypress Creek savoring temperatures in the 70s, wazzup nature-wise in winter.  The Aster Family in their prime,  not to mention Dahoon Holly berries, American Bluehearts,  yellow Ludwigias, Pond-Cypress already regrowing leaves, and “Florida Snow” along the sleighride home.   The most eye-catching displays were the flower-laden Myrsine branches overhanging the trail.    Similar to its neighbor Wax Myrtle, Myrsine bears its flowers directly on the upturned young stems.

Here’s the thing with Myrsine.  Thousands of flowers even on a single branch.   Nice! But where is the fragrance?  None.  Where are the bees?   Absent.  Today bees were all over the Asters but not a buzz to bee heard on the Myrsine blossoms, despite outnumbering the Asters 1000/1.  Weird.  Although there is no study of Myrsine pollination in Florida, Myrsine is a large genus, and botanists regard it broadly as a wind-pollinated offshoot from insect-pollinated ancestors.  

There is a correlation between wind pollination (anemophily, ah-nem-AH-filly) and having separate male and female plants (dioecy, DI-ece-ee).   Sure enough, with a few exceptions Myrsine has separate male and female plants.    Apropos to the wind pollination and the separate sexes, in 2014 botanist D.L. Peng and collaborators found, “Dioecy was strongly associated with inconspicuous, pale‐colored flowers [YUP], anemophily [YUP], and shrubs [YUP].”   Separate male and female mammals have different sex chromosomes, you know, X and Y.  Geneticist R. Silva in 2015 found preliminary evidence for sex chromosomes in Myrsine too.

Myrsine fruits have their own oddity.   Try to find a ripe blueberry or ripe blackberry in South Florida.  Ha ha…the birds beat you to it!   But you can have all the Myrsine “berries” (drupes) you desire. Birds do consume and disperse them, but reluctantly.  Blueberries, blackberries,  and other luscious fruits compete for birds, offering  sugars and deliciousness.   Works great, but costly. 

Myrsine, by contrast, cheaps out…it makes lotsa fruits, but each is about 95% “stone” with only a smidge of tasty purple pulp.   They take a year to mature, ripening in the winter for hungry birds without access to better berries.  Think of a tourist destination where in-season the tony restaurants compete by offering snobbish wines and imported White Stilton, but in the off-season the locals settle for Cabernet in a carton and Cheese Puffs at 7-11.