Florida clover ash, Florida tetrazygia, West Indies lilac

Melastoma bicolor Miller, Gard. Dict. ed. 8, Melastoma no. 6. 1768

Shrubs or trees 1–5(–10) m. Stems: twigs slender, tawny to gray-brown, lepidote; buds minute, globose; bark thin, gray-brown. Leaves: petiole 1–2.5 cm, lepidote; blade narrowly ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 5.5–12(–20) cm × 20–35 mm, base rounded to obtuse, apex acuminate, surfaces tawny abaxially, with dense, persistent scales, dark green adaxially. Inflorescences 4–10 cm, lepidote. Pedicels slender, 5–10 mm. Flowers: hypanthium urceolate (subglobose, with a short neck), 4–4.5 mm in flower, 4–5 mm at maturity, lepidote; calyx subtruncate at apex; petals obovate to obtriangular, 5–7 mm; anthers bright yellow, 4–5 mm. Berries persistent, purple to purplish black, subglobose (with persistent hypanthial rim), 7–9 mm diam.

Flowering Jun–Dec (year-round). Limestone sinks, mixed broadleaf hammocks, silver palm hammocks, slash pine woods with Guettarda, Myrsine, and Serenoa, disturbed areas, over limestone outcrops; 0–10 m; Fla.; West Indies (including Bahamas); introduced in Pacific Islands (Hawaii).

Tetrazygia bicolor is known in the flora area from Miami-Dade County. G. Nelson (1994) observed that in southern Florida it has two growth forms; in pinelands, plants mostly appear as relatively small, single-stemmed shrubs, but in adjacent hammocks, they may grow to 10 m with a trunk diameter of 6–10 cm.