Polyscias
Content
Description
Unarmed shrubs or trees, glabrous or furfuraceous.
Leaves imparipinnate or 2-3-pinnate (rarely unifoliolate) with an elongated or short sheathing base;
Inflorescence terminal, often large, a panicle, corymb, or compound rarely simple umbel.
Flowers in umbellules, capitula, or racemose;
Petals 4-5(-8 or more), valvate.
Stamens equal in number to the petals;
Ovary inferior, 4-5(-8 or more)-celled;
Fruit a spherical or ovoid drupe, crowned by the persistent calyx rim and the styles or stylopodium;
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Malaya present; New Guinea present; Sumatera (Sumatera present), Australasia, Pacific present, tropics of the Old World present
About 100 spp. throughout the tropics of the Old World (incl. Australia), and the Pacific Islands; in Malesia 23 spp. of which 3 adventive: rare in West (none native in Sumatra and Malaya), more common in East, the majority in New Guinea. .
Notes
Araliads with pinnate leaves and an articulated pedicel are here regarded as forming one genus, divided into several sections. These sections have formerly been segregated as genera, but I follow Bernardi, l.c., in uniting them. The most distinctive is sect. Polyscias, characterized by an elongated leaf- sheath. Several of the species of this section are cultivated and have a number of cultivars.
Citation
Hutch. 1967 – In: Gen. Fl. Pl.: 75
Miq. 1856 – In: Fl. Ind. Bat.: 762
Merr. 1917: Int. Rumph.: 408
Bth. 1876 – In: B. & H., Gen. Pl. 1: 941
Seem. 1921 – In: Bot. Jahrb.: 412
Seem. 1868 – In: J. Bot.: 129
Hutch. 1967 – In: Gen. Fl. Pl.: 75
Miq. 1923 – In: En. Philip.: 233
Seem. 1866: Fl. Vit.: 114
Seem. 1865 – In: J. Bot.: 179
Harms 1921 – In: Bot. Jahrb.: 409
DC. 1830 – In: Prod.: 257
Miq. 1856 – In: Bonplandia: 139
Hutch. 1967 – In: Gen. Fl. Pl.: 68
Merr. 1917: Int. Rumph.: 409
Merr. 1923 – In: En. Philip.: 233
Harms 1894 – In: E. & P., Nat. Pfl. Fam. 3: 45
Koord. 1916 – In: Atlas: f. 677-680
Bernardi 1971 – In: Candollea: 13
Miq. 1856 – In: Fl. Ind. Bat.: 765
Harms 1894 – In: E. & P., Nat. Pfl. Fam. 3: 43
Hutch. 1967 – In: Gen. Fl. Pl.: 75
Philipson 1978 – In: Blumea: 169