Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Myrtales > Melastomataceae > Miconia > Miconia calvescens

Miconia calvescens (miconia; Bush currant; Purple plague; velvet tree; Cancer vert)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Miconia calvescens, the velvet tree, miconia, or bush currant, is a species of flowering plant in the family Melastomataceae. It is native to Mexico and Central and South America and it has become one of the world's most invasive species. The tree can grow to a height of 15 metres (49 ft) and has very large leaves, each up to 1 metre (3.3 ft) in length. Its purple and green leaves with flashy white veining made it attractive as an ornamental, and it was imported to Hawaii and other new areas in the mid-twentieth century.
View Wikipedia Record: Miconia calvescens

Invasive Species

View ISSG Record: Miconia calvescens

Attributes

Leaf Type [1]  Evergreen
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Specific Gravity [3]  0.4
Structure [1]  Tree

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Cayambe-Coca Ecological Reserve VI 921676 Ecuador  
El Rey National Park II 110298 Salta, Argentina
Sierra del Divisor Reserve Zone 3652986 Peru      

Predators

Abgrallaspis cyanophylli (cyanophyllum scale)[4]
Chiroxiphia boliviana (Yungas Manakin)[5]

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
1Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
2USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
3Wood specific gravity of trees and forest types in the southern Peruvian Amazon, Deborah W. Woodcock, ACTA AMAZONICA 30(4): 589-599. 2000
4Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
5ARE MALES AND FEMALES OF THE YUNGAS MANAKIN (CHIROXIPHIA BOLIVIANA) ECOLOGICALLY REDUNDANT AS SEED DISPERSERS?, Flavia A. Montaño-Centellas, ORNITOLOGIA NEOTROPICAL 23: 185–192, 2012
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0