Glory Bush
Tibouchina multiflora (?)
On Chepkoilel Campus, Eldoret, Kenya, Africa. October 2010.
Brilliant pink-purple flowers of this shrub have encouraged gardeners to transplant members of the genus Tibouchina from their original home in tropical America to tropical environs everywhere. The results are sometimes undesirable as the plants have escaped their natural controls (insects mostly) and thus proliferate uncontrollably becoming weeds. The flowers of this species change color white to pink after anthesis.
The leaves of plants in the family Melastomataceae are distinctive in their venation. Up to seven parallel veins with many cross-veins yielding a checker-board pattern.