Myriopus Small (1933: 1131)

Melo, José Iranildo Miranda De, Paulino, Renan Da Cruz, Oliveira, Regina Célia De & Vieira, Diego Daltro, 2018, Flora of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil: Boraginales, Phytotaxa 357 (4), pp. 235-260 : 253

3. Myriopus Small (1933: 1131) .

Subshrubs, shrubs, or lianas, scandent or erect, decumbent or with supporting branches, with lenticels or without. Leaves alternate or subopposite, petiolate. Inflorescences scorpioid, paniculiform, sometimes with secondary branches (secundiflorous branches), terminal, axillary or internodal, lax or congested. Flowers subsessile or sessile; lobes slightly unequal, persistent; corolla white, yellow, orangish or greenish-white, tubular, lobes involute, linear or linearlanceolate. Stamens sessile, epipetalous, anthers coherent, occasionally with glandular-pubescent apex. Ovary of different forms, locules 2, ovules 2 per locule; style terminal, cylindrical; stigma narrowly conical or subpeltate. Drupe with 2 or 4 lobes, calyx persistent. Seed 1 per lobe, embryo curved.

The genus is composed by approximately 25 species, distributed exclusively in the Neotropics, with the Caribbean and Brazil the main centers of taxonomic diversity. In Rio Grande do Norte it is represented by three species in the Caatinga, Atlantic Forest, and littoral Ecorregions.