As many of you will know, I am a huge fan of Myrtaceae family plants, but possibly without realising it. My favourite tree and one of my many favourite show flower types come from this family. Living in Australia, many of the countries fabulous native species belong to this group of plants.

This family is full of shrubs and trees, often with peeling bark, although not all species in this family have the peeling bark feature. flowers are very showy with their many stamens. Included in the approximately 5500 species are valuable timber trees (Eucalyptus), fruits (including guava and spices (including cloves and allspice), so quite a versatile group of plants. Most plants are from tropical regions, with many plants also from South America and the Mediterranean. Apparently Australia has the largest range of hardy plants in the family of anywhere.

According to the fossil record, the fossilised fruit capsules from the Middle Eocene (about 45 million years ago) do suggest that the family could have originated further back in time in the Late Cretaceous (90-70 million years ago). That sounds rather awesome to me-that is some lineage right there! As a side note, I find geology endlessly fascinating too.

There are two things that I love about this plant family more than anything-the aforementioned peeling bark (an interestingly odd thing to my mind) and the flowers. They can appear in clusters or as individuals, with four or five petals and sepals. They are bisexual too. In Eucalyptus trees and their close relatives, petals are fused into a cap that falls off to show their stamens. Fruit follows, being either fleshy berries or capsules.

Leaves often have oil glands over their surfaces. They usually have an opposite arrangement but can be alternate too. In Eucalyptus trees, there is heteroblasty where young trees have different leaves to mature adult trees.