Plant Name

Scientific Name: Miconia calvescens

Common Names: Velvet Tree, Miconia, Purple Plague, Green Cancer, Bush Currant

Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial, Evergreen

Growth Habit: Tree, Shrub

Hawaii Native Status: Introduced. This naturalized ornamental garden plant is native to tropical America.

Flower Color: Inconspicuous (white, tan, or pink)

Height: Up to 50 feet (15 m) tall, but often half that or less

Description: The tiny flowers are in upright panicles at the branch tips. The flowers are followed by small, round, blue-purple fruits that are eaten by birds. The distinctive leaves have 3 lighter-colored main veins, a net of smaller horizontal veins, and are dark green above, maroon to purple velvet-colored below, opposite, oval in shape, and up to 3 feet (0.9 m) long. The plants are branched, woody shrubs to medium-sized trees here.

Although attractive, this villain of a plant is extremely invasive and threatens native Hawaiian forests. It has already caused serious environmental damage on Tahiti where vast stands of it carpet whole hillsides, shading out all other plants and reducing biodiversity. Velvet Tree has shallow roots, so hills covered with this plant are vulnerable to landslides. Here in Hawaii, Velvet Tree grows in sunny to shady, moist to mesic (moderately wet) forests from sea level to 5000 feet (1524 m) in elevation.

Special Characteristics

Legal Status – Hawaii State-listed Noxious Weed

Classification

Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Rosidae
Order: Myrtales
Family: Melastomataceae – Melastome family
Genus: Miconia Ruiz & Pav. – johnnyberry
Species: Miconia calvescens DC. – velvet tree