Tuesday 21 May
In the News: First crane egg in the western UK in four centuries
Galapagos miconia (Miconia robinsoniana)
What’s the World’s Favourite Species?
Find out here.Galapagos miconia fact file
- Description
- Biology
- Range
- Habitat
- Status
- Threats
- Conservation
- Find out more
- Glossary
- References
- Print factsheet
Galapagos miconia description
| Kingdom | Plantae |
| Phylum | Tracheophyta |
| Class | Magnoliopsida |
| Order | Myrtales |
| Family | Melastomataceae |
| Genus | Miconia (1) |
Although it is now vastly depleted, the Galapagos miconia still lends its name to a unique vegetation zone on two of the major islands in the Galapagos (2) (3) (4) (5). It is an attractive shrub that has large, leathery leaves with conspicuous veins forming a striking pattern on the upper surface (2) (6). The purple flowers are arranged in branched clusters up to 18 centimetres long, while the fruit is a dark purplish berry (6).
- Also known as
- Cacaotillo.
- Size
- Height: 2 - 5 m (2)
- The Charles Darwin Foundation:
www.darwinfoundation.org - Galapagos Conservation Trust:
www.gct.org - Endemic
- A species or taxonomic group that is only found in one particular country or geographic area.
- UNEP-WCMC Species Database (June, 2009)
http://sea.unep-wcmc.org/isdb/Taxonomy/ - McMullen, C.K. (1999) Flowering Plants of the Galapagos. Cornell University Press, New York.
- Wiggins, I.L. and Porter, D.M. (1971) Flora of the Galapagos Islands. Stanford University Press, Stanford.
- Kricher, J.C. (2006) Galapagos: A Natural History. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.
- Jackson, M.H. (2001) Galapagos: A Natural History. University of Calgary Press, Calgary.
- Stephenson, M. (2000) The Galapagos Islands: The Essential Handbook for Exploring, Enjoying & Understanding Darwin's Enchanted Islands. The Mountaineers Books, Washington.
- Charles Darwin Foundation. (2006) Charles Darwin Research Station Fact Sheet: The scourge of red quinine. Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands (AISBL), Galapagos, Ecuador. Available at:
http://www.darwinfoundation.org/files/species/pdf/quinine-en.pdf - Galapagos Conservation Trust (June, 2009)
http://www.gct.org/flora.html - view the contents of, and Material on, the website;
- download and retain copies of the Material on their personal systems in digital form in low resolution for their own personal use;
- teachers, lecturers and students may incorporate the Material in their educational material (including, but not limited to, their lesson plans, presentations, worksheets and projects) in hard copy and digital format for use within a registered educational establishment, provided that the integrity of the Material is maintained and that copyright ownership and authorship is appropriately acknowledged by the End User.
More »
Top
Related species
Galapagos miconia biology
There is no available information on the biology of the Galapagos miconia.
TopGalapagos miconia range
This Galapagos endemic is restricted to the islands of San Cristóbal and Santa Cruz (2) (3).
More »
Top
Species with a similar range
Galapagos miconia habitat
The Miconia zone is an area of open shrubland above the tree-line on both islands. It characteristically comprises dense stands of Galapagos miconia interspersed with ferns and clubmosses (2) (4).
More »
Top
Species found in a similar habitat
Galapagos miconia status
This species has not yet been assessed by the IUCN.
TopGalapagos miconia threats
Owing to burning, grazing by introduced animals, and most significantly, competition with introduced plants, the dense stands of Galapagos miconia that form the Miconia zone are no longer nearly as extensive as they once were (2). The chief culprit on Santa Cruz is the quinine tree (Cinchona pubescens), introduced from tropical South America in 1946 (2) (7). Quinine has invaded large stands of the Galapagos miconia to produce a non-native closed canopy forest, and has the potential to eventually wipe out the entire zone (2) (6) (7) (8).
TopGalapagos miconia conservation
The main priority for the conservation of the Miconia zone and its dominant species, the Galapagos miconia, is the eradication of quinine from Santa Cruz. Although scientists from the Charles Darwin Research Station are confident this could be achieved, it has been estimated that the total eradication of this highly invasive species would cost 6 to 8 million dollars, over 10 to 15 years. Although both expensive and labour intensive, the eradication of quinine from the highlands of Santa Cruz is seen as essential to the conservation of the native flora and fauna (7).
TopFind out more
For further information on the conservation of the endemic flora of the Galapagos see:
Authentication
This information is awaiting authentication by a species expert, and will be updated as soon as possible. If you are able to help please contact: arkive@wildscreen.org.ukTopGlossary
References
More »Related species
Sign up to our newsletter
Get the latest wild news direct to your inbox.
Get involved
ARKive relies on its media donors to donate photos and videos. Can you help? There are plenty of other ways you can get involved too!
X
Close
Close
Link to this photo
Embed this ARKive thumbnail link by copying and pasting the code below.
Terms of Use - The displayed thumbnail may be used as a link from your website to ARKive's online content for private, scientific, conservation or educational purposes only. It may NOT be used within Apps.
Read more about
X
Close
Close
MyARKive
MyARKive offers the scrapbook feature to signed-up members, allowing you to organize your favourite ARKive images and videos and share them with friends.
X
Close
Close
Terms and Conditions of Use of Materials
Copyright in this website and materials contained on this website (Material) belongs to Wildscreen or its licensors.
Visitors to this website (End Users) are entitled to:
End Users shall not copy or otherwise extract, alter or manipulate Material other than as permitted in these Terms and Conditions of Use of Materials.
Additional use of flagged material
Green flagged material 
Certain Material on this website (Licence 4 Material) displays a green flag next to the Material and is available for not-for-profit conservation or educational use. This material may be used by End Users, who are individuals or organisations that are in our opinion not-for-profit, for their not-for-profit conservation or not-for-profit educational purposes. Low resolution, watermarked images may be copied from this website by such End Users for such purposes. If you require high resolution or non-watermarked versions of the Material, please contact Wildscreen with details of your proposed use.
Creative commons material
Certain Material on this website has been licensed to Wildscreen under a Creative Commons Licence. These images are clearly marked with the Creative Commons buttons and may be used by End Users only in the way allowed by the specific Creative Commons Licence under which they have been submitted. Please see http://creativecommons.org for details.
Any other use
Please contact the copyright owners directly (copyright and contact details are shown for each media item) to negotiate terms and conditions for any use of Material other than those expressly permitted above. Please note that many of the contributors to ARKive are commercial operators and may request a fee for such use.
Save as permitted above, no person or organisation is permitted to incorporate any copyright material from this website into any other work or publication in any format (this includes but is not limited to: websites, Apps, CDs, DVDs, intranets, extranets, signage, digital communications or on printed materials for external or other distribution). Use of the Material for promotional, administrative or for-profit purposes is not permitted.