e-Key v3 - Schefflera
SANBI Flora Keys Logo
Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Araliaceae - Schefflera J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.

Description :

  • Trees, shrubs, or scramblers
  • Leaves digitately compound or sometimes simple; leaflets entire or serrulate; stipules connate with petiole
  • Flowers in panicles or racemes of small umbels; bracts 0 or minute
  • Calyx 5-toothed or rim-like
  • Petals 5, valvate
  • Stamens 5; anthers ovate to ovoid
  • Disc with undulate margin
  • Ovary 2-locular; styles 2, free or stigmas subsessile and papilla-like
  • Fruit a small, subglobose, 2-locular berry
  • x = 12 (polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

  • Schefflera J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.
    • Forster & Forster: 45, t. 23 (1776) name conserved
    • Cannon: 622 (1978)
  • Heptapleurum Gaertn.
    • Gaertner: 472, t. 178, fig. 3 (1791)
    • Hiern: 29 (1877)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 200, Africa to Madagascar, Far East and New Zealand
  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Schefflera umbellifera (Sond.) Baill., Northern Province, Mpumalanga, Swaziland to KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape border

References:

  • CANNON, J.F.M. 1978. Araliaceae . Flora zambesiaca 4
  • FORSTER, J.R. & FORSTER, G. 1776. Characteres generum plantarum . White, Cadell & Elmsby, London
  • GAERTNER, J. 1791. Heptapleurum . De fructibus et seminibus plantarum 2. Schramm, Tübingen
  • HIERN, W.P. 1877. Heptapleurum . Flora of tropical Africa 3