Melastomastrum capitatum(Vahl) A.Fern. & R.Fern.

WFO wfo-0001082233 Accepted WFO 2026-06 3 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–c · 1 observation

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Melastomastrum capitatum, photographed by Viken
fig. a Viken, CC BY 4.0 / 2018-10-13 / obs. 26563558
Melastomastrum capitatum, photographed by Viken
fig. b Viken, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 26563574
Melastomastrum capitatum, photographed by Viken
fig. c Viken, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 26563581

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 22 botanical countries

Regions where Melastomastrum capitatum is native: Angola, Benin, Burkina, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia AngolaBeninBurkinaCameroonCentral African RepublicCongoDR CongoEthiopiaGabonGuineaGuinea-BissauLiberiaMaliNigeriaRwandaSenegalSierra LeoneSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambia
Native distribution of Melastomastrum capitatum, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Burkina BKN
Cameroon CMN
Central African Republic CAF
Congo CON
DR Congo ZAI
Ethiopia ETH
Gabon GAB
Guinea GUI
Guinea-Bissau GNB
Liberia LBR
Mali MLI
Nigeria NGA
Rwanda RWA
Senegal SEN
Sierra Leone SIE
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 11 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Dissotis capitata (Vahl) Hook.f.
  • Dissotis erecta (Guill. & Perr.) Dandy
  • Heterotis capitata (Vahl) Benth.
  • Heterotis vogelii Benth.
  • Melastoma capitata Vahl
  • Melastoma capitatum Vahl
  • Melastomastrum capitatum var. capitatum
  • Melastomastrum capitatum var. silvaticum Jacq.-Fél.
  • Melastomastrum erectum (Guill. & Perr.) Naudin
  • Tristemma capitatum (Vahl) Triana
  • Tristemma erectum Guill. & Perr.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.