Status of Miconia calvescens (Melastomataceae), a Dominant Invasive Tree in the Society Islands (French Polynesia)
|Title:||Status of Miconia calvescens (Melastomataceae), a Dominant Invasive Tree in the Society Islands (French Polynesia)|
|Issue Date:||Jan 1996|
|Publisher:||University of Hawaii Press|
|Citation:||Meyer JY. 1996. Status of Miconia calvescens (Melastomataceae), a dominant invasive tree in the Society Islands (French Polynesia). Pac Sci 50(1): 66-76.|
|Abstract:||Since its introduction to Tahiti in 1937 as an ornamental, Miconia
calvescens DC. (Melastomataceae) has become the most important plant
pest in the Society Islands. Its ecological characteristics allow it to thrive and
spread in a wide range of habitats, including native forest, where it forms dense
monotypic stands. Miconia calvescens now dominates over two-thirds of Tahiti
and has spread to the surrounding islands of Moorea and Raiatea. This species
represents an immediate threat to the native flora of all the high islands of
French Polynesia and a potential danger to many tropical oceanic islands.