Melastoma affine
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| Melastoma affine D. Don |
Melastoma affine, also known by the common names Blue Tongue or Native Lassiandra, is a shrub distributed in tropical and sub-tropical forests of India, South-east Asia and Australia. The taxonomy of the melastoma group is tricky with Meyer proposing to revise this species into M. malabathricum subsp. malabathricum in Blumea 46(2): 351–398 (2001). However, this hasn't been fully accepted (Australian Plant Census - Melastomataceae).
The flowers are purple with 5 petals and sepals. There are two sets of distinctive stamens, 5 opposite the petals and 5 opposite the sepals. The antisepalous ones in particular have very large long anthers with a bilobed appendage at their base. The purple fruits are edible and stain the mouth blue, thus the common name.
M. affine is important as being a pioneer species that colonises disturbed wet-sclerophyll and rain forest habitats in the Australasian region (Gross, 1993). It produces no nectar - giving pollinators large amounts of pollen instead, which must be extracted through pores on the anthers (Gross 1993).
[edit] Sources
- C. L. Gross. "The Breeding System and Pollinators of Melastoma affine (Melastomataceae); A Pioneer Shrub in Tropical Australia". Biotropica, Vol. 25, No. 4. (Dec., 1993), pp. 468-474.
- 'Australian Plant Census - Melastomataceae' (PDF). Retrieved on April 16, 2006.
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