Bredia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Melastomataceae (order Myrtales), established by Carl Ludwig Blume in 1849. The genus comprises at least 21 species of herbs, shrublets, and subshrubs with a predominantly East Asian distribution. Bredia is morphologically distinguished by its papery leaf texture and a persistent, enlarged ovary crown that encloses an inverted frustum-shaped depression at the capsule apex. Flowers have 8 stamens that are unequal or subequal, with filiform filaments and anthers that may be dimorphic or isomorphic — subulate to oblong-linear, often gibbose, tuberculate, or spurred at the base. The capsules are turbinate to cup-shaped and approximately 4-sided. Seeds are numerous, minute, cuneate, and densely granulate. The genus is closely related to Tashiroea, which was recently resurrected from synonymy under Bredia based on phylogenetic evidence; Tashiroea differs in its glabrous mature leaves, furrowed leaf surfaces, and capsules with an evanescent ovary crown.
Etymology
Bredia was named by the Dutch botanist Carl Ludwig Blume in 1849 in honor of Jacob Gijsbertus Samuël van Breda (1788–1867), a Dutch biologist, geologist, and physicist who served as a professor at the University of Ghent and later as secretary of the Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen.
Distribution
Bredia is native to East Asia, with its center of diversity in mainland China (15 species). The genus also occurs in northern Vietnam (1 species), Taiwan (5 species), and extends to the Ryukyu Islands of Japan (1 species). Most species inhabit forests, forest margins, stream banks, and damp places at elevations from 100 to 2,500 metres.
Ecology
Bredia species are typically found in mesic habitats including forests, forest margins, stream banks, and other damp locations. They occur across a broad elevational range from 100 to 2,500 metres above sea level. The plants grow as herbs, shrublets, or subshrubs with erect, ascending, or creeping growth forms.
Taxonomy Notes
The genus Bredia has undergone taxonomic revision. The closely related genus Tashiroea was long treated as a synonym of Bredia (Li, 1944), but was resurrected in 2019 following a phylogenetic study by Zhou et al. published in PhytoKeys. The two genera are distinguished by indumentum of mature leaves (glabrous with yellowish uniseriate trichomes in Tashiroea vs. sparsely to densely puberulous or strigose in Bredia), leaf surface sculpture (furrowed vs. not furrowed), and capsule morphology (ovary crown usually evanescent with rounded or 4-humped top vs. persistent and enlarged crown with inverted frustum-shaped depression). Tashiroea includes 11 species distributed in southeastern China, Taiwan, and the Ryukyus.
