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The flowering plant Miconia calvescens is known by the common names miconia, bush currant, and velvet tree. It is native to the Neotropic but is best known for being arguably the worst invasive plant in Hawaii, where it threatens to destroy entire ecosystems, and similarly damaging in other tropical locales such as Tahiti. The tree can grow to a height of 15 meters and has very large leaves, each up to a meter 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. Once it dispersed into the wet tropical forests it took hold vigorously, invaded any spot in the understory that received patches of sunlight, and became a noxious weed. Scientific classification or biological classification is how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms (as opposed to folk taxonomy). ...
Divisions Green algae land plants (embryophytes) non-vascular embryophytes Hepatophyta - liverworts Anthocerophyta - hornworts Bryophyta - mosses vascular plants (tracheophytes) seedless vascular plants Lycopodiophyta - clubmosses Equisetophyta - horsetails Pteridophyta - true ferns Psilotophyta - whisk ferns Ophioglossophyta - adderstongue ferns seed plants (spermatophytes) †Pteridospermatophyta - seed ferns Pinophyta - conifers Cycadophyta - cycads Ginkgophyta - ginkgo Gnetophyta - gnetae Magnoliophyta - flowering...
Classes Magnoliopsida- Dicots Liliopsida- Monocots The flowering plants (also called angiosperms) are a major group of land plants. ...
Magnoliopsida is the botanical name for a class: this name is formed by replacing the termination -aceae in the name Magnoliaceae by the termination -opsida (Art 16 of the ICBN). ...
Families See text. ...
Genera See text. ...
Species See text. ...
In biology, binomial nomenclature is the formal method of naming species. ...
Augustin Pyrame de Candolle Augustin Pyrame de Candolle (February 4, 1778 - September 9, 1841) was a Swiss botanist. ...
The Neotropic ecozone is a terrestrial ecoregion which includes South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. ...
The term invasive species refers to a subset of those species defined as introduced species or non-indigenous species. ...
Official language(s) English, Hawaiian Capital Honolulu Largest city Honolulu Area Ranked 43rd - Total 10,941 sq mi (28,337 km²) - Width n/a miles (n/a km) - Length 1,522 miles (2,450 km) - % water 41. ...
In ecology, an ecosystem is a combination of all the living and non-living elements of an area. ...
Map of French Polynesia Map of Tahiti and Moorea View of Raiatea Mountain. ...
An ornamental plant is a plant that is grown for its ornamental qualities, rather than for its commercial or other value. ...
Understory (or understorey) is the term for the area of a forest which grows in the shade of the overstory or canopy. ...
A weed is an unwanted plant. ...
Miconia trees can flower several times a year and bear fruit simultaneously. The flowers are large inflorescences of light pink blossoms and the tiny purple fruits are half a centimeter in diameter and packed with minuscule seeds. The sweet fruits are attractive to birds and other animals which disperse the seeds. This heavy seed production and potential for long-distance dispersal help make miconia a threat. The seeds lie dormant in the soil of the forest, and whenever a break in the canopy allows sun to shine through to a patch of soil the seeds there undergo germination. Once the plants grow to full height, their enormous leaves shade out all the space below them, preventing any other plant from growing nearby. It also has a shallow root system that facilitates soil erosion. An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers on a branch of a plant. ...
Severe soil erosion in a wheat field near Washington State University, USA. Erosion s the displacement of solids (soil, mud, rock and other particles) by the agents of wind, water or ice, by downward or down-slope movement in response to gravity or by living organisms (in the case of...
Hawaiian populations of miconia were first discovered in the 1990s, and since the plant's invasive potential was already well-known, control and eradication efforts began immediately there. Uprooting and herbicides are used to remove plants, but biological control has not yet met with great success. Teams of volunteers often lead expeditions into the forest to remove miconia plants by hand. Biological control of pests and diseases Overview A key belief of the organic gardener is that diversity furthers health. ...
The plant has become an ecological disaster on Tahiti. One quarter of the rainforest there is now made up of miconia stands. For this reason, it is frequently called the "green cancer" on the island. When normal cells are damaged beyond repair, they are eliminated by apoptosis. ...
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