''Murraya paniculata'', commonly known as orange jasmine, orange jessamine, china box, cosmetic barktree, or mock orange, is a species of shrub or small tree in the family

Rutaceae The Rutaceae () is a family (biology), family, commonly known as the rueRUTACEAE
in Bo ...

and is

native Native may refer to: People * '' Jus sanguinis'', nationality by blood * '' Jus soli'', nationality by location of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Nat ...

to South Asia, Southeast Asia and Australia. It has smooth bark,

pinnate Pinnation (also called pennation) is the arrangement of feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis. Pinnation occurs in biological morphology, in crystals, such as some forms of ice or metal crystals, and ...

leaves with up to seven egg-shaped to elliptical leaflets, fragrant white or cream-coloured flowers and oval, orange-red berries containing hairy seeds.

Description

''Murraya paniculata'' is a tree that typically grows to a height of but often flowers and forms fruit as a shrub, and has smooth pale to whitish bark. It has pinnate leaves up to long with up to seven egg-shaped to elliptical or

rhombus In plane Euclidean geometry, a rhombus (: rhombi or rhombuses) is a quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. Another name is equilateral quadrilateral, since equilateral means that all of its sides are equal in length. The rhom ...

-shaped. The leaflets are glossy green and

glabrous Glabrousness () is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes, or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of a plant or animal, or be due to loss because of a physical condition, ...

, long and wide on a

petiolule In botany, the petiole () is the stalk that attaches the leaf blade to the stem. It is able to twist the leaf to face the sun, producing a characteristic foliage arrangement (spacing of blades), and also optimizing its exposure to sunlight. Outg ...

long. The flowers are fragrant and are arranged in loose groups, each flower on a

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

long. There are five (sometimes four)

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 Etymology The term ''sepalum'' ...

s about long and five (sometimes four) white or cream-coloured petals long. and the fruit is an oval, glabrous, orange-red berry long containing densely hairy seeds.

Phenology

Flowering occurs from June to March in Australia, and the fruit ripen between January and October. In the northern hemisphere flowering occurs from April to October and fruit ripen from April to February.

Taxonomy

This species was first described and illustrated by

Georg Eberhard Rumphius Georg Eberhard Rumphius (originally: Rumpf; baptized c. 1 November 1627 – 15 June 1702) was a German-born botanist employed by the Dutch East India Company in what is now eastern Indonesia, and is best known for his work ''Herbarium Amboinense ...

in the latter half of the 17th century during his time in what was then known as the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

, and published posthumously in 1747. However the first

formal description A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differ ...

was produced in 1767 by the Swedish botanist

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

who gave it the name ''Chalcas paniculata'' and published it in his book ''

Mantissa Plantarum Mantissa () may refer to: * Mantissa (logarithm), the fractional part of the common (base-10) logarithm * Significand (also commonly called mantissa), the significant digits of a floating-point number or a number in scientific notation * Mantissa ...

'', which is an appendix to the

12th edition 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

of his earlier work

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the Orthographic ligature, ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Sweden, Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the syste ...

. In 1820 the Scottish botanist William Jack changed the name to ''Murraya paniculata'' in his book ''Descriptions of Malayan Plants alayan Miscellanies'.

Distribution and habitat

''Murraya paniculata'' grows in rainforest, often as an

understorey In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the forest canopy without penetrating it to any great extent, but above ...

shrub in vine thickets, including behind beaches. It is native to

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

and

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

, China and

Australasia Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different context ...

, while the distribution area extends from Pakistan via India, Sri Lanka and southern China to Taiwan, the Philippines, where it is called ''kamuníng'', the

Ryūkyū Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ryukyu Islands are divided into the Satsunan Islands ( Ōsumi, Tokara and Amami) and Okinawa Prefecture ( Daitō, Miyako, Y ...

and the

Mariana Islands The Mariana Islands ( ; ), also simply the Marianas, are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, between the 12th and 21st pa ...

, to the south via Malaysia and Indonesia to New Guinea and parts of Australia. In Australia, it is native to the

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...

region of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, northern parts of the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

, and parts of

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

. The species has been naturalised in other places, sometimes becoming an invasive weed, including on many Pacific islands. In Queensland, it is regarded as different from the cultivated form ''Murraya paniculata'' 'Exotica', which is regarded as one of the most invasive plant species in southeast Queensland.

Cultivation

''Murraya paniculata'' is cultivated as an ornamental tree or hedge because of its hardiness, wide range of soil tolerance (''M. paniculata'' may grow in

alkaline In chemistry, an alkali (; from the Arabic word , ) is a basic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7.0. The ...

, clayey, sandy,

acid An acid is a molecule or ion capable of either donating a proton (i.e. Hydron, hydrogen cation, H+), known as a Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory, Brønsted–Lowry acid, or forming a covalent bond with an electron pair, known as a Lewis ...

ic and

loam Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–si ...

y soils), and is suitable for larger hedges. The plant flowers throughout the year and produces small, fragrant flower clusters which attract bees, while the fruits attract small

frugivorous A frugivore ( ) is an animal that thrives mostly on raw fruits or succulent fruit-like produce of plants such as roots, shoots, nuts and seeds. Approximately 20% of mammalian herbivores eat fruit. Frugivores are highly dependent on the abundance ...

birds.

Propagation

The orange jessamine is sexually propagated by its seeds. The fruits are eaten by birds, which then pass the seeds out in their

feces Feces (also known as faeces American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, or fæces; : faex) are the solid or semi-solid remains of food that was not digested in the small intestine, and has been broken down by bacteria in the ...

. It may also be asexually propagated by softwood cuttings.

Ecology

This species is one of the preferred hosts of the citrus pest ''

Diaphorina citri ''Diaphorina citri'', the Asian citrus psyllid, is a sap-sucking, hemipteran bug now in the taxonomic family Liviidae. It is one of two confirmed vectors of citrus greening disease. It has a wide distribution in southern Asia and has spread to ...

'', the citrus psyllid, which is the vector for the

Citrus greening disease Citrus greening disease ( abbr. HLB) is a disease of citrus caused by a vector-transmitted pathogen. The causative agents are motile bacteria, '' Liberibacter'' spp. The disease is transmitted by the Asian citrus psyllid, '' Diaphorina citri'', ...

Diseases

''M. paniculata'' is vulnerable to soil

nematode The nematodes ( or ; ; ), roundworms or eelworms constitute the phylum Nematoda. Species in the phylum inhabit a broad range of environments. Most species are free-living, feeding on microorganisms, but many are parasitic. Parasitic worms (h ...

s, scales,

sooty mold Sooty mold (also spelled sooty mould) is a collective term for different Ascomycete fungi, which includes many genera, commonly ''Cladosporium'' and ''Alternaria''. It grows on plants and their fruit, but also environmental objects, like fences, ...

and

whiteflies Whiteflies are Hemipterans that typically feed on the undersides of plant leaves. They comprise the family Aleyrodidae, the only family in the superfamily Aleyrodoidea. More than 1550 species have been described. Description and taxonomy The A ...

Gallery

File:Starr_061105-9627_Murraya_paniculata.jpg, Flowers and leaves File:Murraya paniculata line draing.gif, Line drawing showing flowers and fruit File:Murraya paniculata fruits closeup.jpg, Fruits File:Starr_061105-9634_Murraya_paniculata.jpg, Shrubby formation in cultivation File:Feuillage_de_Murraya_paniculata.jpg, Foliage File:Flor-Murraya_manipulata.JPG, Flower detail

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q238591 paniculata Flora of tropical Asia Flora of Western Australia Flora of the Northern Territory Flora of Queensland Sapindales of Australia Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Plants described in 1767