A Neotropical Savanna

One morning during the first April we lived here, we saw a huge display of red berries outside the kitchen window.

The leaves were striking as well – large and glossy on the top side, somewhat folded, with 3 strong veins running lengthwise as well as smaller veins running horizontally across the leaves.

But with so many plants to learn, so many things to do, it was some time before I got around to looking closely at this particular interesting tree.

Black Mouth Family

Early on, though, I learned that those strong longitudinal veins are a good indicator of the Melastomataceae family, whose leaves are

• opposite
• simple
• with alternating pairs decussate (at right angles along the stem),

and whose leaves have

• 1-4 pairs of longitudinal veins.

Melastomata comes from mela = black and stomata = mouth, so this is the “black mouth” family. You get a black mouth when you eat the ripe berries! Which, by the way, are quite good, as the birds well know. Two-thirds of the plants in this family are in the New World tropics (wikipedia). In Tree Atlas of Panama, 62 species are listed from the Melastomataceae family, 31 of them in the genus Miconia.

Gentry makes identification within the large Melastomataceae family a little easier by first separating those genera that have capsular fruits from those with berry fruits. Obviously, our plant has berries. Of the various features that sort out other groups, the two that applies to this tree are

• a flower cluster in the form of a panicle (loose and branching, as in oats) at the ends of the stems

• medium to small flowers with broad obtuse petals (the petals are at a greater than 90-degree angle).

These flowers are small, certainly, with the petals folded back at a great angle. Note that both the stamens (pollen-bearing male parts) and the petals are on the rim of the flower, which is a characteristic of the entire family, not just of the genus. The pistil (the female part) emerges from the center of the flower.

The Miconia Genus

These characters – the berries, the panicle flower cluster and the small flowers with petals at a great angle – place our tree in the genus Miconia, one of the largest neotropical plant genera.

The genus Miconia was named for Francisco Mino (or Miño?), 16th century Spanish physician and botanist (botanary). I haven’t been able to find anything on the internet about this botanist – a Google search turns up a contemporary business man in Facebook and Linkedin, which is fun but not to the point.

Mule’s Ear Tree

Two trees from the Melastomataceae family, both in the Miconia genus, are listed in Carrasquilla’s Trees and Shrubs of Panama:

• Miconia argentea, sometimes called dos caras, or two faces for the brown undersides of the leaves, and
• Miconia impetiolaris, also sometimes called dos caras but also called oreja de mula, or mule’s ear.

This tree is M. impetiolaris – the mule’s ear -, but since the common names refer to the leaves, let’s take a closer look at them.

They are certainly long enough – 30 cm in the sample below – to call a mule’s ear.

And the underside is certainly brown enough to give the leaves a “two-faced” appearance.

Further, the scientific name is based on a feature of the leaves. The petiole is the leaf stalk that attaches the leaf to the stem. If we look closely at the attachment site we see the end of the vein but no leaf stalk.

To drive the point home, here are leaves of four other Miconia plants compared with a leaf from M. impetiolaris on the right. The petioles in all four are pretty clear, and when the leaves are turned over to show their undersides, even the shortest petioles are distinct. (Click on either image for a larger view – and while you’re at it, take a moment to appreciate those incredible longitudinal veins!)

The main vein of the leaf of M. impetiolaris, then, attaches directly to the stem. There is no obvious leaf stalk, or petiole. When we take the species name and break it down we find im- meaning “less” and -petiolaris meaning “remarkable leaf stalk” (botanary).

So the scientific name, Miconia impetiolaris, means “the Miconia without a remarkable leaf stalk.”

A Neotropical Native

The mule’s ear Miconia is native to Central America and parts of South America.

Because of the spectacular leaves, flowers, and berries, this tree would make a fine ornamental. One of our neighbors has done so, letting it grow in a row with carefully tended other native trees. The Miconia impetiolaris is circled and that’s a pruned native Clusia to the right. From the flowers and berries you’ve seen here, you can only imagine what a nice spectacle this tree makes when it is either in flower or in fruit.

I love it when native plants are incorporated so nicely into a beautiful setting.