Schefflera

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Schefflera

Schefflera arboricola

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Apiales
Family:	Araliaceae
Subfamily:	Aralioideae
Genus:	Schefflera J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.

Selected species

Schefflera actinophylla
Schefflera arboricola
Schefflera delavayi
Schefflera digitata
Schefflera elegantissima
Schefflera longifolia
Schefflera morototoni
Schefflera octostyla
Schefflera pubens
Schefflera robusta
Schefflera rotundifolia
Schefflera sciadophyllum
Schefflera sphaerocoma
Schefflera stellata
Schefflera tomentosa
Schefflera umbellifera
Schefflera urbaniana
Schefflera venulosa

For the complete list, see List of Schefflera species.

Synonyms

Actinomorphe (Miq.) Miq.
Actinophyllum Ruiz & Pav.
Agalma Miq.
Astropanax Seem.
Bakeria Seem.
Brassaia Endl.
Cephaloschefflera (Harms) Merr.
Crepinella Marchal
Didymopanax Decne. & Planch.
Dizygotheca N.E.Br.
Geopanax Hemsl.
Heptapleurum Gaertn.
Neocussonia Hutch.
Nesopanax Seem.
Octotheca R.Vig.
Parapanax Miq.
Paratropia (Blume) DC.
Plerandra A.Gray
Scheffleropsis Ridl.
Sciadophyllum P.Browne
Tupidanthus Hook.f. & Thomson

Schefflera is a genus in the flowering plant family Araliaceae. The plants are trees, shrubs or lianas, growing 1-30 m tall, with woody stems and palmately-compound leaves. The circumscription of the genus has varied greatly. Phylogenetic studies have shown that the widely-used broad circumscription as a pantropical genus of over 700 species is polyphyletic, but it remains to be seen how this will affect the classification of the genus.

Several species are grown in pots as houseplants, most commonly Schefflera actinophylla, also known as the Umbrella Tree. Numerous cultivars have been selected for various characters, most popularly for variegated or purple foliage. Schefflera species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidopteran species including Batrachedra arenosella (recorded on S. stellata).

[edit] Name

The genus is named in honor of Jacob Christian Scheffler, a 19th-century German botanist who wrote about Asarum.^[1]

[edit] References

^ Helmut Genaust (1983): Etymologisches Wörterbuch der botanischen Pflanzennamen, 2. Auflage. Birkhäuser Verlag - ISBN 3-7643-1399-4

Frodin, D. G. and R. Govaerts. 2004. World Checklist and Bibliography of Araliaceae. Kew Publishing.
Plunkett, G. M., P. P. Lowry, D. G. Frodin and J. Wen. 2005. Phylogeny and geography of Schefflera: pervasive polyphyly in the largest genus of Araliaceae. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 92: 202-224.