Schefflera
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For the complete list, see List of Schefflera species. |
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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.
[edit] External links
The Wikimedia Commons has media related to Schefflera.
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