Tetrazygia bicolor (Mill.) Cogn., Melastomataceae

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Present on Pacific Islands?  yes

Primarily a threat at high elevations?  no

Risk assessment results:  High risk, score: 7 (Go to the risk assessment)

Common name(s): [more details]

English: Florida clover ash

Habit:  shrub/tree

Description:  "A shrub or small tree to about 6 m tall, with scaly bark, the young twigs scurfy.  Leaves opposite; petioles slender, scurfy, 2-4 cm long; blades lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 8-20 cm long, strongly 3-ribbed and with many widely spreading lateral veins, entire, acuminate at the apex, mostly obtuse at the base, green above, whitish-scurfy beneath.  Panicles peduncled, 1-2 dm long, several- to many-flowered; pedicels slender, 5-10 mm long.  Calyx limb subtruncate.  Petals 4, white, 7-8 mm long.  Berry subglobose, purple or black, 8-10 mm in diameter"  (Correll and Correll, 1982; p. 1082).

Habitat/ecology:  Moist and wet forests and open areas.   In Hawai‘i, "infrequently cultivated and now locally naturalized in mesic to wet forest and disturbed areas such as along trails and roadsides"  (Wagner et al., 1999; p. 913).

Propagation:  Seed, probably spread by birds.

Native range:  US (Florida), Cuba, Jamaica, Bahamas, Dominica.

Presence:

Pacific
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
State of Hawaii Hawaiian Islands	Hawai‘i (Big) Island	introduced invasive cultivated	Wagner, Warren L./Herbst, Derral R./Sohmer, S. H. (1999) (pp. 913-914) Voucher cited: Baldwin s. n. (BISH)
State of Hawaii Hawaiian Islands	O‘ahu Island	introduced	Wester, Lyndon (1992) (p. 143)

Control:  "No work done but work on other melastomes may be transferable" (Motooka et al., 2003).

Additional information:
Excerpt from the book "Weeds of Hawaii‘s Pastures and Natural Areas; An Identification and Management Guide" (Motooka et al., 2003). (PDF format).

Additional online information about Tetrazygia bicolor is available from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR).

Information about Tetrazygia bicolor as a weed (worldwide references) may be available from the Global Compendium of Weeds (GCW).

Taxonomic information about Tetrazygia bicolor may be available from the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

References:

Correll, Donivan S./Correll, Helen B. 1982. Flora of the Bahama Archipelago. Gantner Verlag.

Motooka, Philip/Castro, Luisa/Nelson, Duane/Nagai, Guy/Ching, Lincoln. 2003. Weeds of Hawaii‘s Pastures and Natural Areas; An Identification and Management Guide. College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii at Manoa. 184 pp.

U. S. Government. 2011. Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) (on-line resource).

Wagner, Warren L./Herbst, Derral R./Sohmer, S. H. 1999. Manual of the flowering plants of Hawaii. Revised edition. Bernice P. Bishop Museum special publication. University of Hawai‘i Press/Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu. 1919 pp. (two volumes).

Wester, Lyndon. 1992. Origin and distribution of adventive flowering plants in Hawai‘i. In: Stone, Charles P.; Smith, Clifford W. and Tunison, J. Timothy. Alien plant invasions in native ecosystems of Hawaii: Management and Research. University of Hawaii, Cooperative National Park Research Studies Unit, Honolulu. University of Hawaii Press. .