Miconia calvescens Dc.

Small tree to 10 m. tall, the younger branches and base of the panicle some-what flattened, thinly cinereous with minute stellate hairs; petioles 3-6 cm. long; leaf-blades elliptic to obovate-oblong, 15-35 cm. long, half to two-thirds as wide, abruptly short-acuminate, entire or undulate, obtuse to broadly rounded at base, 3-nerved with an additional pair of marginal veins, pubescent when young, soon glabrescent, or with a few stellate hairs persistent along the veins beneath; panicles 1-3 dm. long, divaricately branched, thinly cinereous-tomentulose; flowers sessile in small lateral and terminal glomerules, 5-merous; hypanthium about 2 mm. long, thinly tomentulose; calyx-tube prolonged about 0.5 mm., sepals broadly triangular, about 0.3 mm. long; petals obovate, white, 2.5-3 mm. long; stamens nearly iso-morphic; anthers linear, 2-2.5 or 3-3.5 mm. long; connective very briefly pro-longed below the thecae into two deflexed lateral lobes; stigma capitate.

Abundant in lowland areas, growing in thickets or along the margins of rivers, in alluvial soils or dry loams; at elevations up to 135 metres.

The fruit are eaten raw.

Seeds can be produced in large numbers and lie dormant in the soil for 12 years. They need sun to germinate.