''Schefflera'' is a genus of
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...
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 commonly called the ginseng family. The morphology of Araliaceae varies widely ...
with 13 species native to New Zealand and some Pacific islands.
The genus is named in honor of , physician and botanist of
Gdańsk
Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...
, and later of
Warsaw
Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
, who contributed plants to for Reyger's book, ''Tentamen Florae Gedanensis''.
Taxonomy
The
circumscription of the genus has varied greatly. Phylogenetic studies have shown that the widely used broad circumscription was
polyphyletic
A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...
, so most of its hundreds of species have been reassigned to other genera. 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. These clades have been split into separate genera, primarily along geographical lines, with ''Schefflera'' now consisting of thirteen species restricted to New Zealand and some Pacific islands.
The houseplant popularly known as "Schefflera" is now ''
Heptapleurum arboricola''.
The old ''
Didymopanax''
Decne. & Planch., 1854 genus was resurrected in 2020 to welcome the 37 American species of ''Schefflera''
J.R. et G. Forst..
The genus has had a turbulent taxonomic history; the list of former
synonyms
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...
includes:
*''Actinomorphe''
*''Actinophyllum''
*''Agalma''
*''
Astropanax''
[
*''Brassaia''
*''Cephaloschefflera''
*'' Crepinella'' ][
*'' Didymopanax'' ][
*''Nesopanax''
*''Parapanax''
*''Paratropia''
*'' Plerandra''
*'' Sciadophyllum''
*''Tupidanthus''
]
Species
13 species are currently accepted:
*'' Schefflera balansana'' – New Caledonia
*'' Schefflera candelabrum'' – New Caledonia
*'' Schefflera coenosa'' – southeastern New Caledonia, including Isle of Pines
*'' Schefflera digitata'' – New Zealand
*'' Schefflera euthytricha'' – Fiji
*'' Schefflera kerchoveiana'' – Vanuatu
*'' Schefflera leratii'' – New Caledonia
*'' Schefflera neoebudica'' – Vanuatu
*'' Schefflera ouveana'' – New Caledonia (Loyalty Islands
Loyalty Islands Province (, ) is one of the three top-level administrative subdivisions of New Caledonia. It encompasses the Loyalty Islands () archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, located northeast of the New Caledonian mainland of Grande Terre.
...
)
*'' Schefflera pseudocandelabrum'' – New Caledonia
*'' Schefflera samoensis'' – Samoa
*'' Schefflera vieillardii'' – New Caledonia
*'' Schefflera vitiensis'' – Fiji
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 preserve ...
fruits of †''Schefflera dorofeevii'' have been extracted from bore hole samples of the Middle Miocene
The Middle Miocene is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), epoch made up of two Stage (stratigraphy), stages: the Langhian and Serravallian stages. The Middle Miocene is preceded by the Early Miocene.
The sub-epoch lasted from 15.97 ± 0. ...
fresh water deposits in Nowy Sacz Basin, West Carpathians, Poland.[Łańcucka-Środoniowa M.: Macroscopic plant remains from the freshwater Miocene of the Nowy Sącz Basin (West Carpathians, Poland) zczątki makroskopowe roślin z miocenu słodkowodnego Kotliny Sądeckiej (Karpaty Zachodnie, Polska) Acta Palaeobotanica 1979 20 (1): 3–117.]
See also
*'' Astropanax''
*'' Crepinella''
*'' Didymopanax''
*'' Heptapleurum''
*'' Neocussonia''
*'' Plerandra''
*'' Sciadophyllum''
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q133351
Apiales genera