Melastomataceae : Polypetalae

This large, pantropical family is particularly well represented in tropical South America. In Australia the family is restricted to the tropical north and east, extending south to northern New South Wales. Most of them grow in seasonally damp places, often on sandy soils. Evergreen trees, or shrubs, or woody or herbaceous scrambling vines, or perennial terrestrial herbs. Stem nodes conspicuously swollen or not; internodes terete, or distinctly angled, or winged.