High in the cloud forests of Central and South America, competing for a foothold on sunlit branches rather than crowded forest floor, grows Blakea — a genus of around 130 species, many of them epiphytic or hemi-epiphytic in the same general strategy as Medinilla, though the two genera evolved this habit independently and aren't closely related within the family.
Blakea species are typically shrubs or small trees, and several produce large, showy flowers that are pollinated not by bees but by hummingbirds and bats — an unusual pollination strategy within a family where buzz-pollinating bees are the norm.
A genus tied to a fragile habitat
Cloud forests are among the more threatened tropical ecosystems, squeezed by elevation-shifting climate change and deforestation pressure at lower elevations pushing further up-slope. Because a meaningful share of Blakea diversity is concentrated in these habitats, and because several species have quite narrow, localized ranges, the genus is frequently cited in conservation literature about cloud forest biodiversity specifically.
Identifying features
- Often has an epiphytic or scrambling growth habit rather than a single upright trunk.
- Flowers are typically larger and more tubular than the flatter, five-petaled form seen in genera like Tibouchina.
- Fruits are berries, often brightly colored, adapted to bird dispersal at higher elevations.
Blakea isn't a genus most home growers will encounter — it's rarely available outside specialist tropical plant collections — but it's a useful example of just how much variation the word "melastome" actually covers. For a broader sense of that variation, see our family overview.