''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 to South Asia, Southeast Asia and Australia. It has smooth bark, pinnate 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, long and wide on a petiolule long. The flowers are fragrant and are arranged in loose groups, each flower on a pedicel 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 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 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'', which is an appendix to the 12th edition 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 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 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 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 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'', the citrus psyllid, which is the vector for the Citrus greening disease.

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.

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