Art by Alice Tangerini: Tibouchina fraterna N.E. Br.

From Plant Press, Vol. 25, No. 3, July 2022.

Found on tepuis, the table form mountains of the Guayana Shield, Tibouchina fraterna (Melastomataceae) is an exceptional plant from an exceptional place—the theme of the 19^th Smithsonian Botanical Symposium, which was held at the National Museum of Natural History on May 13, 2022. Native to Guyana and south Venezuela, T. fraterna has been found on Mount Auyán, Mount Duida, and Mount Roraima. Tibouchina fraternal was one of a series of melastome drawings Alice Tangerini drew for John Wurdack in 1987, published in the Flora of the Guianas treatment of the Melastomataceae. The narrow page format encouraged Tangerini to illustrate many of the floral characters overlapping parts of the habit with leaf surface details placed underneath the habit. This format style continued until software allowed for scanning and layout digitally. A remark by a reviewer on one of the melastome drawing copies was, “A beautiful illustration! It would be nice to have additional species illustrated like this”.