Native name.
Herbs, shrubs or small trees. Leaves elliptic to lanceolate with 1-3 pairs of veins passing from base to tip. Flower clusters mostly terminal. Flowers with 5 petals. Stamens 8 or 10, unequal, the connective forming a prolonged appendage, at least on the longer stamens. Ovary with 4-5 chambers. Fruit a dry, mostly bristly capsule. Syn. Lasiandra DC.
Tibouchina is the name given to these plants by the indigenous people.
Grown for the spectacular, simple but elegant, bright purple flowers.
243 species from tropical America.
Hardwood cuttings.
Large purple flowers with 5 petals and mostly 10 stamens.
Wurdack (1967).
Source: (2002). Melastomataceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 3. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 2. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
