Axinaea is a genus of flowering plants in the family Melastomataceae. As of 2012, there are at least 42 species.Bussmann, R. W., & Zambrana, N. P. (2012). Axinaea ninakurorum (Melastomataceae)− a new species from the northern Peruvian Merianeae hotspot. Arnaldoa 19(1) 23-27. They are small trees and shrubs. They are native to the Americas; almost all are found in the Andes.Bussmann, R. W., Gruhn, J., & Glenn, A. (2010). Axinaea fernando-cabiesii and A. reginae spp. nov.(Melastomataceae) from upper Amazonia of Peru, with notes on the conservation status of A. flava. Nordic Journal of Botany, 28(5), 518-522.
Plants of this genus are pollinated when birds, several species of fruit-eating tanagers, consume specialized appendages on the stamens. As they grasp the nutritious appendages, a cloud of pollen is released. This has been called "puff pollination".Edwards, J. (2014). Coevolution: puff pollination in tropical flowers. Current Biology, 24(14), R649-R651.Dellinger, A. S., et al. (2014). A specialized bird pollination system with a bellows mechanism for pollen transfer and staminal food body rewards. Current Biology, 24(14), 1615-19.
Species include:
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