Plant Name
Scientific Name: Tibouchina urvilleana
Common Names: Princess-flower, Glorybush, Lasiandra, Princess Flower, Purple Glory Bush, Tibouchina
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Perennial
Growth Habit: Tree, Shrub
Hawaii Native Status: Introduced. This naturalized ornamental garden plant is native to Brazil.
Flower Color: Royal purple with a dark blue sheen
Height: To 15 feet (4.6 m) tall
Description: The beautiful flowers are 3-5 inches (8-13 cm) across and have 5 broad petals and 5 bright reddish sepals. The leaves have usually 5 parallel lengthwise veins and are green in color, narrowly edged in red, hairy, opposite, and narrowly oval to lance-shaped. Mature plants form large mounds and multiple plants can form dense thickets.
Special Characteristics
Legal Status – Hawaii State-listed Noxious Weed. Although Princess-flowers make nice garden plants elsewhere, here in Hawaii, these common and conspicuous plants are major thicket-forming weeds that invade forests and displace native plants.
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: Tibouchina Aubl. – glorytree
Species: Tibouchina urvilleana (DC.) Cogn. – princess-flower
More About This Plant