''Murraya'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the citrus family, Rutaceae. It is distributed in Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands.''Murraya''.
Flora of China. The

center of diversity A center of origin is a geographical area where a group of organisms, either domesticated or wild, first developed its distinctive properties. They are also considered centers of diversity. Centers of origin were first identified in 1924 by Ni ...

is in southern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and Southeast Asia.But, P. P., et al. (1986)
A chemotaxonomic study of ''Murraya'' (Rutaceae) in China.
''Acta Phytotax. Sin'' 24(3), 186-92. When broadly

circumscribed In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a polygon is a circle that passes through all the vertices of the polygon. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter and its radius is called the circumradius. Not every polyg ...

, the genus has about 17 species. A narrower circumscription contains only eight species, others being placed in ''

Bergera ''Bergera'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rutaceae. It has been included in ''Murraya'' as ''M.'' sect. ''Bergera''. Species that may be placed in the genus are native from India through southeast Asia eastwards to China and Taiwa ...

'' and ''

Merrillia ''Merrillia'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the citrus family, Rutaceae, containing the single species ''Merrillia caloxylon''. Its English language common names include flowering merrillia, katinga, and Malay lemon. In Malaysia it ...

''.

Description

Plants in the genus ''Murraya'' are shrubs or trees with pinnate leaves arranged alternately, usually glandular, aromatic, and leathery to membranous in texture. The leaflets vary in shape and have smooth or toothed edges.''Murraya''.
FloraBase. Western Australian Herbarium. The inflorescence is a

panicle A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...

, cyme, or small

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

of flowers growing at the ends of branches or in the leaf axils; some flowers are solitary. The fragrant flowers have 4 or 5 sepals and white

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s and up to 10 straight

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s. The fruit is a fleshy

berry A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples are strawberries, raspb ...

with pulp but without the juice vesicles present in some related fruits. It is up to 1.3 centimeters long and orange, red, or black.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Murraya'' was first formally described in 1771 by Carl Linnaeus in ''

Mantissa Plantarum Altera ''Mantissa Plantarum Altera'', (abbreviated Mant. Pl. Alt.), is an illustrated book with botanical descriptions which was edited by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ...

'' from an unpublished description by

Johann Gerhard König Johann Gerhard König (29 November 1728 – 26 June 1785) was a Baltic German botanist and physician who served in the Tranquebar Mission, India before joining service under the Nawab of Arcot, and then the English East India Company. He collected ...

. The genus name commemorates the 18th-century German-Swedish herbal doctor Johan Andreas Murray, a student of Linnaeus.Missouri Botanical Garden
/ref> In 1986, Paul P.-H. But and co-authors separated off some species of ''Murraya'' as ''M.'' sect. ''Bergera'' based on chemical evidence. Evidence from

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametophyt ...

morphology and multiple

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

studies showed that when broadly

, ''Murraya'' was not

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

, and treating ''M.'' sect. ''Bergera'' as the separate genus ''

'' has widespread support. ''Murraya'' is in the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

Aurantioideae, which also includes the genus '' Citrus''. It is in the tribe Clauseneae.

Species list

Studies have repeatedly shown that two sections into which ''Murraya'' has been divided, ''M.'' sect. ''Murraya'' and ''M.'' sect. ''Bergera'', should be treated as separate genera. ''Murraya'' sensu stricto was revised in 2021, with eight species being accepted: * '' Murraya alata'' Drake – China Southeast, Hainan, Vietnam * '' Murraya elongata''

A.DC. Alphonse Louis Pierre Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (28 October 18064 April 1893) was a French-Swiss botanist, the son of the Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle. Biography De Candolle, son of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, first devot ...

Hook.f. Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of t ...

– Myanmar * '' Murraya glenieii'' Thwaites ex

Oliv. Daniel Oliver, FRS (6 February 1830, Newcastle upon Tyne – 21 December 1916) was an English botanist. He was Librarian of the Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew from 1860–1890 and Keeper there from 1864–1890, and Professor of Botany at ...

– Sri Lanka * ''

Murraya lucida ''Murraya'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the citrus family, Rutaceae. It is distributed in Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands.G.Forst. Johann George Adam Forster, also known as Georg Forster (, 27 November 1754 – 10 January 1794), was a German naturalist, ethnologist, travel writer, journalist and revolutionary. At an early age, he accompanied his father, Johann Reinhold F ...

)

Mabb. Professor David John Mabberley , (born May 1948) is a British-born botanist, educator and writer. Among his varied scientific interests is the taxonomy of tropical plants, especially trees of the families Labiatae, Meliaceae and Rutaceae. He ...

– Vanuatu * '' Murraya omphalocarpa'' Hayata * ''

Murraya paniculata ''Murraya paniculata'', commonly known as orange jasmine, orange jessamine, china box or mock orange, is a species of shrub or small tree in the family Rutaceae and is native to South Asia, Southeast Asia and Australia. It has smooth bark, pin ...

'' ( L.) Jack – Tropical Asia to Vanuatu and Australia * '' Murraya sumatrana'' Roxb. * ''

Murraya zollingeri ''Murraya'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the citrus family, Rutaceae. It is distributed in Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands.Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It was launched in March 2017 with the ultimate aim being "to enable users to access information on all the world's known seed-bearing plants by ...

are: * '' Murraya caloxylon''

Ridl. Henry Nicholas Ridley CMG (1911), MA (Oxon), FRS, FLS, F.R.H.S. (10 December 1855 – 24 October 1956) was an English botanist, geologist and naturalist who lived much of his life in Singapore. He was instrumental in promoting rubber trees ...

– Malayasia, Thailand; synonym of '' Merrillia caloxylon'' * ''

Murraya crenulata ''Murraya'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the citrus family, Rutaceae. It is distributed in Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands.Turcz. Nikolai Stepanovich Turczaninow ( ru , Николай Степанович Турчанинов, 1796 in Nikitovka, now in Krasnogvardeysky District, Belgorod Oblast, Russia – 1863 in Kharkov) was a Russian botanist and plant collector who ...

)

– Taiwan (Lan Yü) to Malesia and SW. Pacific; placed in ''M.'' sect. ''Bergera'' * '' Murraya cyclopensis'' Astuti & Rugayah – W. New Guinea * ''

Murraya euchrestifolia ''Murraya'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the citrus family, Rutaceae. It is distributed in Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands.Hayata – China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Taiwan; placed in ''M.'' sect. ''Bergera'' * '' Murraya exotica'' L. – China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Taiwan * '' Murraya glabra'' ( Guillaumin) Swingle – Vietnam * '' Murraya heptaphylla''

Span. Johan Baptist Spanoghe (1798, Madras Presidency, Madras – 22 April 1838, Pekalongan, Java) was a Dutch botanical collector of Belgian parentage. A native of Madras, then part of Company rule in India, British India, in 1816 he became a civil se ...

– Lesser Sunda Islands (Timor) * '' Murraya koenigii'' ( L.)

Spreng. Kurt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel (3 August 1766 – 15 March 1833) was a German botanist and physician who published an influential multivolume history of medicine, ''Versuch einer pragmatischen Geschichte der Arzneikunde'' (1792–99 in four vo ...

– Indian Subcontinent to China (S. Yunnan, Guangdong) and Indo-China, S. Hainan; synonym of '' Bergera koenigii'' * ''

Murraya kwangsiensis ''Murraya'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the citrus family, Rutaceae. It is distributed in Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands.C.C.Huang) C.C.Huang – China (SE. Yunnan, W. & SW. Guangxi); placed in ''M.'' sect. ''Bergera'' * '' Murraya macrophylla'' (C.C.Huang) F.J.Mou & D.X.Zhang – China * ''

Murraya microphylla ''Murraya'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the citrus family, Rutaceae. It is distributed in Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands.Merr. Elmer Drew Merrill (October 15, 1876 – February 25, 1956) was an American botanist and taxonomist. He spent more than twenty years in the Philippines where he became a recognized authority on the flora of the Asia-Pacific region. Through ...

& Chun) Swingle – China (Guangdong), Hainan; placed in ''M.'' sect. ''Bergera'' * ''

Murraya tetramera ''Murraya'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the citrus family, Rutaceae. It is distributed in Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands.C.C.Huang – China (SE. Yunnan, W. Guangxi); placed in ''M.'' sect. ''Bergera''

Uses

''Murraya'' species are used in landscaping. Some species can be

grafted Grafting or graftage is a horticultural technique whereby tissues of plants are joined so as to continue their growth together. The upper part of the combined plant is called the scion () while the lower part is called the rootstock. The succ ...

onto

citrus rootstock Citrus rootstock are plants used as rootstock for citrus plants. A rootstock plant must be compatible for scion grafting, and resistant to common threats, such as drought, frost, and common citrus diseases. Principal rootstocks Five types of rootst ...

s. Species have been used in traditional medicine, with various parts of the plants used to treat fever, pain, and dysentery. ''M. paniculata'' has been used to induce labor. It has been used in Cuba for painful inflammatory conditions.Casado Martín, C. M., et al. (2011)
Acercamiento al género ''Murraya'' (Rutaceae) ya la especie ''Murraya paniculata'' (L.) Jack.
''Revista Cubana de Plantas Medicinales'' 16(4), 408-18. (Spanish) In

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

, ''Murraya'' species are used to make

thanaka Thanakha, also spelled Thanakha (; ), is a paste made from ground bark. It is a distinctive feature of the culture of Myanmar, seen commonly applied to the face and sometimes the arms of women and girls, and is used to a lesser extent also by men ...

, a cosmetic paste that is typically applied onto the face.

Chemistry

Compounds isolated from ''Murraya'' include many types of coumarins and alkaloids. The novel alkaloid

yuehchukene Yuehchukene is a dimeric indole alkaloid natural product that possesses anti-fertility and estrogenic activities. Yuehchukene is isolated from the roots of ''Murraya paniculata'' and other species of the plant genus '' Murraya''. Its natural abun ...

was found in ''M. paniculata'', and it has since been isolated from other ''Murraya''. It is found in red-fruited species with larger petals, but not in black-fruited species with smaller petals. Some species also contain the carbazole girinimbine.

Spelling competition

In July 2021, 14-year old Zaila Avant-garde of Harvey, Louisiana, won the final of the 2021

Scripps National Spelling Bee The Scripps National Spelling Bee (formerly the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee and commonly called the National Spelling Bee) is an annual spelling bee held in the United States. The bee is run on a not-for-profit basis by The E. W. Scri ...

by correctly spelling the word "Murraya", and was the first African American to win the 96-year-old event.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1641850 Aurantioideae genera