Melastomataceae is a mouthful, but the name is not random. It is a compound with a clear meaning, and it follows a rule that applies to most plant families.
Breaking down the word
The name has three pieces:
- Melas, Greek for black.
- Stoma, Greek for mouth.
- -aceae, the standard ending for plant family names.
Put together, Melastomataceae means roughly the family of the black-mouth plants. The German common name, Schwarzmundgewächse, is a direct translation. The English common name melastome is a shortened, anglicised form.
Why black mouth?
The name refers to the genus Melastoma, whose berries stain the mouth dark when eaten (edible melastomes and the black mouth). Melastoma was named in the eighteenth century, and when families were later defined, this genus became the namesake of the group.
How family names work
Under the international rules for naming plants, a family name is normally formed by taking the stem of a genus name and adding -aceae. Examples include Rosaceae from Rosa, and Orchidaceae from Orchis. For this family the type genus is Melastoma, so the family is Melastomataceae.
You will sometimes see the shorter spelling Melastomaceae. Both forms appear in older and regional literature, but Melastomataceae is by far the more widely used in current botanical references.
Who named the family?
The family was recognised by the French botanist Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, whose 1789 work on plant classification established many of the families still used. That is why the name is often followed by the author abbreviation Juss., which tells you who first validly described it. See reading a botanical name for what author abbreviations mean.
Common names
Several names are used informally:
- Melastomes, the generic everyday term, and the one used throughout this site.
- Melastome family, for the group as a whole.
- Glory bush, princess flower, Singapore rhododendron, which are names for particular species and not for the family. The last is explained in Melastoma malabathricum.
A note on relatives
Plants once placed in this family have been moved around over time. The Memecylon group, for example, was long treated as part of Melastomataceae and is treated by some authorities as a separate family, Memecylaceae, while others keep it inside Melastomataceae (see Memecylon). This shows that family boundaries, like genus boundaries, can shift.
Why names like this matter
A good scientific name acts as a unique label that works in any language. People in Germany, Brazil and Japan can all refer to the same group of plants without confusion, even if their common names differ. For a wider look at how plants are grouped, see plant family classification.
Takeaways
- Melastomataceae means roughly the black-mouth family.
- It is named for the genus Melastoma, whose berries stain the tongue.
- Family names are built from a genus name plus -aceae.
- Names are stable labels, though the groups they describe can change.