EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Miconia Shrublands

Galapagos Miconia (Miconia robinsoniana), Family Melastomataceae
Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Explanation:  Looking other-worldly is this fog-enshrouded shrubland.  We are hiking on the side of El Junco peak on San Cristobol Island of the Galapagos.  Here grows this beautiful but threatened shrub, the Galapagos miconia.
 

The bright, long, red leaves with parallel venation are a distinctive feature of Galapagos miconia.
  
Found only on San Cristobol and Santa Cruz Islands, this locally endemic species is a Galapagos specialty but is threatened by invasive plants, particularly the imported quinine tree (Cinchona succirubra) on Santa Cruz.   

  

On San Cristobol Island, Galapagos miconia shares the
slopes with bracken fern, Pteridium aquilinum var. arachnoideum,
a variety endemic to the Galapagos but that is nearly
indistinguishable from other bracken varieties found
elsewhere in the world.

Thickets of Galapagos miconia also provide important cover
for ground-nesting Galapagos (dark-rumped) petrels, endemic seabirds of the region,
during the rainy season.

      
       The leaves turn reddish
during periods of drought.

Areas of Galapagos miconia have
been cleared for agriculture,
and are also threatened by the
invasive guava (Psidium guajava).

The pink or purple flowers cluster
at the ends of the branches, and
produce small dark bluish berries.

Back in the early 2000s, the El Junco peak area was covered by invasive blackberry vines.  But this is a conservation success story, as the local park service has eradicated the blackberry and the miconia has returned to the slopes en force and now once again dominates the landscape.  

Hooray for valiant conservation efforts to save rare, threatened, and beautiful inhabitants of our natural world!