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Family:

Melastomataceae (Magnoliophyta)

Primary Citation:

Prodr. (DC.) 3: 185. 1828

Accepted Name:

This name is currently accepted.

Common Names:

velvet tree, velvet tree, miconia

Description:

Description Author and Date: Frank Almeda, based on Almeda, F. (2009). Melastomataceae. In: G. Davidse, M. Sousa-Sânchez, S. Knapp, & F. Chiang (eds.), Flora Mesoamericana: Cucurbitaceae a Polemoniaceae. 4(1): 164-338.

Type: Holotype: Brazil, Martius s.n. (K!).

Description: Shrubs or trees 2-10(-15) m tall, the young branchlets, inflorescences, and hypanthia moderately beset with a tardily deciduous cover of stellulate hairs, the distal internodes and inflorescence rachis somewhat compressed and quadrisulcaste. Leaves 3-5-nerved, oblong-elliptic to elliptic-ovate, 15-40(-70) X 7-20(-28) cm, adaxially glabrous, abaxially glabrous to sparingly stellulate-furfuraceous on or near the elevated primary veins , apex short-acuminate, base obtuse to rounded but varying to shallowly cordate, the margin entire to obscurely undulate-serrulate; petioles 3-8 cm long. Panicle 20-35(-45) cm long, the sessile 5-merous flowers aggregated in congested terminal and lateral glomerules, the deciduous bracteoles elliptic-ovate to oblong, 2-4 X 1-1.5 mm. Calyx tube 0.5 mm long, the broadly triangular lobes 0.25-0.5 mm long, the adnate exterior teeth inconspicuous and not projecting. Petals oblong-obovate, glabrous but sometimes sparsely gland-edged or minutely ciliolate, 2-2.5(-3) X 1-1.5 mm. Stamens somewhat unequal in size; anthers linear-oblong, alternately 2.5-3 mm and 1.8-2.5 mm long, white, the larger with a ventrally inclined pore, the smaller with a retuse or subtruncate pore; connective not or only slightly prolonged (to ca. 0.5 mm), ventro-basally bilobed (often beset with a few glands) and dorso-basally rounded-tuberculate or irregularly lobulate. Style glabrous to sparsely glandular-puberulent, 5-8 mm long; stigma slightly expanded to capitellate; ovary 3-locular, 1/2 or 2/3 inferior, apex inconspicuously papillose or granulose; berry 3-4 X 3.5-4.5 mm, purple at maturity. Seeds ovoid to pyramidate, nitid, irregularly angled and rugulate, 0.5 mm long.

Habitat and Distribution: Uncommon, rain forest, stream margins. 130-1170 m. Southern Mexico (Veracruz), Colombia south to Bolivia, S Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. MEXICO: Chiapas (Breedlove & Almeda 57506, CAS); GUATEMALA (Contreras 9384, CAS); HONDURAS (Schnell 982, US); NICARAGUA (Narvaez 3063, CAS); COSTA RICA (Almeda & Nakai 4190, CAS); PANAMA (Hammel et al. 14812, CAS);

Taxonomy and Systematics: Some populations of this species are striking because of the dark purple or red pigmentation on lower leaf surfaces. This colorful leaf form, which has been cultivated in the warm tropics, has become a very troublesome naturalized weed in Sri Lanka, Tahiti, and Hawaii.

Notes: [Description based only on Mesoamerican specimens.]

Flora and Monograph Treatment(s):

Miconia calvescens DC.: [Article] Maguire, Bassett, et al. 1953. The Botany of the Guayana Highland. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 8 (2): 87-160.