''Schefflera'' is a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s in the family

Araliaceae The Araliaceae are a family of flowering plants composed of about 43 genera and around 1500 species consisting of primarily woody plants and some herbaceous plants. The morphology of Araliaceae varies widely, but it is predominantly distinguish ...

. With an estimated 600–900 species, the genus represents about half of its family. The plants are

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

s, shrubs or lianas, growing tall, with woody stems, the absence of articulated pedicels and armaments, and palmately compound leaves. Several species are grown in pots as

houseplant A houseplant, sometimes known as a pot plant, potted plant, or an indoor plant, is an ornamental plant that is grown indoors. As such, they are found in places like residences and offices, mainly for decorative purposes. Common houseplants are us ...

s, most commonly ''

Schefflera actinophylla ''Heptapleurum actinophyllum'' (formerly ''Schefflera actinophylla'') is a tree in the family Araliaceae. It is native to tropical rainforests and gallery forests in northern and north-eastern Queensland coasts and the Northern Territory of Austr ...

'' (umbrella tree) and ''

Schefflera arboricola ''Heptapleurum arboricola'' (syn. ''Schefflera arboricola'', ) is a flowering plant in the family Araliaceae, native to Taiwan and Hainan Province, China. Its common name is dwarf umbrella tree, as it resembles a smaller version of the umbrella t ...

'' (dwarf umbrella tree). Numerous

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture ...

s have been selected for various characters, most popularly for

variegated Variegation is the appearance of differently coloured zones in the leaves and sometimes the stems and fruit of plants. Species with variegated individuals are sometimes found in the understory of tropical rainforests, and this habitat is the s ...

or purple foliage. ''Schefflera'' species are used as food plants by the

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. ...

e of some Lepidopteran species including ''

Batrachedra arenosella ''Batrachedra arenosella'', the armoured scale eating caterpillar or the coconut moth, is a species of moth of the family Batrachedridae. It was first described by Francis Walker using specimens collected in Auckland, New Zealand. It has been hypo ...

'' (recorded on ''S. stellata''). ''

'' and ''

'' can be used to attract birds. The genus is named in honor of Johann Peter Ernst von Scheffler (born in 1739), physician and botanist of Gdańsk, and later of Warsaw, who contributed plants to

Gottfried Reyger Gottfried is a masculine German given name. It is derived from the Old High German name , recorded since the 7th century. The name is composed of the elements (conflated from the etyma for 'God' and 'good', and possibly further conflated with ) a ...

for Reygers book, 'Tentamen Florae Gedanensis'.

Fossil record

Two

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

fruits of †''Schefflera dorofeevii'' have been extracted from bore hole samples of the Middle Miocene fresh water deposits in Nowy Sacz Basin,

West Carpathians The Western Carpathians are a mountain range and geomorphological province that forms the western part of the Carpathian Mountains. The mountain belt stretches from the Low Beskids range of the Eastern Carpathians along the border of Poland wit ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

Systematics

The

circumscription Circumscription may refer to: *Circumscribed circle * Circumscription (logic) *Circumscription (taxonomy) *Circumscription theory, a theory about the origins of the political state in the history of human evolution proposed by the American anthrop ...

of the genus has varied greatly. Phylogenetic studies have shown that the widely used broad circumscription as a pantropical genus is

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of conver ...

, but it remains to be seen how this will affect the classification of the genus. Molecular analyses have recovered five polyphyletic clades of ''Schefflera'', all of which are geographically isolated from one another yet share similar traits indicating

parallel evolution Parallel evolution is the similar development of a trait in distinct species that are not closely related, but share a similar original trait in response to similar evolutionary pressure.Zhang, J. and Kumar, S. 1997Detection of convergent and paral ...

. These clades are to be split into separate genera, primarily along geographical lines, with ''Schefflera'' in the strict sense to consist of eight species restricted to the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

islands. The old ''

Didymopanax ''Didymopanax'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araliaceae, native to southern Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. It was resurrected from ''Schefflera'' in 2020. Species The following species are accepted: * ...

'' Decne. & Planch., 1854 genus was resurrected in 2020 to welcome the 37 American species of ''Schefflera'' J.R. et G. Forst..

Species

Taxonomy

The genus has had a turbulent taxonomic history; the list of synonyms includes: * ''Actinomorphe'' (

Miq. Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel (24 October 1811 – 23 January 1871) was a Dutch botanist, whose main focus of study was on the flora of the Dutch East Indies. Early life Miquel was born in Neuenhaus and studied medicine at the University of Groni ...

)

* ''Actinophyllum'' Ruiz & Pav. * ''Agalma''

* ''Brassaia'' Endl. * ''Cephaloschefflera'' ( Harms) Merr. * ''Geopanax'' Hemsl. * ''Heptapleurum'' Gaertn. * ''Nesopanax''

Seem. Berthold Carl Seemann (25 February 1825, in Hanover, Germany – 10 October 1871, in Nicaragua, Central America), was a German botanist. He travelled widely and collected and described plants from the Pacific and South America. In 1844 he trave ...

* ''Parapanax''

* ''Paratropia'' ( Blume) DC. * ''Scheffleropsis'' Ridl. * ''Sciadophyllum'' P.Browne * ''Tupidanthus''

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 ...

Thomson Thomson may refer to: Names * Thomson (surname), a list of people with this name and a description of its origin * Thomson baronets, four baronetcies created for persons with the surname Thomson Businesses and organizations * SGS-Thomson Mic ...

The list of former synonyms includes: * '' Astropanax''

* '' Crepinella'' Marchal * ''

Decne. Joseph Decaisne (7 March 1807 – 8 January 1882) was a French botanist and agronomist. He became an ''aide-naturaliste'' to Adrien-Henri de Jussieu (1797-1853), who served as the chair of rural botany. It was during this time that he began to stu ...

& Planch. * ''

Neocussonia ''Neocussonia'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Araliaceae. Its native range is Tanzania to s. Africa and Madagascar. It is also found in the Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, the Northern Provinces (regions of South Africa), ...

Hutch. John Hutchinson, Officer of the Order of the British Empire, OBE, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (7 April 1884 Blindburn, Northumberland – 2 September 1972 London) was an English botanist, taxonomist and author.''A Botanist in Southern Afric ...

* ''

Plerandra ''Plerandra'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araliaceae that has long been considered a synonym of ''Schefflera'', which has been a polyphyletic group. Species Species include: * '' Plerandra actinostigma'' (A.C. Sm. & B.C. Stone) ...

'' A.Gray - synonyms: ''Bakeria''

, ''Dizygotheca''

N.E.Br. Nicholas Edward Brown (11 July 1849 in Redhill, Surrey – 25 November 1934 in Kew Gardens, London) was an English plant taxonomist and authority on succulents. He was also an authority on several families of plants, including Asclepiadacea ...

, ''Octotheca'' R.Vig.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q133351 Apiales genera Plants used in bonsai