Schefflera


Schefflera is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araliaceae. With an estimated 600-900 species, the genus represents about half of its family. The plants are trees, shrubs or lianas, growing tall, with woody stems, the absence of articulated pedicels and armaments, and palmately compound leaves.
Several species are grown in pots as houseplants, most commonly Schefflera actinophylla and Schefflera arboricola. Numerous cultivars have been selected for various characters, most popularly for variegated or purple foliage. Schefflera species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidopteran species including Batrachedra arenosella. Schefflera arboricola and Schefflera actinophylla can be used to attract birds.
The genus is named in honor of Johann Peter Ernst von Scheffler, physician and botanist of Gdańsk, and later of Warsaw, who contributed plants to Gottfried Reyger for Reygers book, 'Tentamen Florae Gedanensis'.

Fossil record

Two fossil fruits of †Schefflera dorofeevii have been extracted from bore hole samples of the Middle Miocene fresh water deposits in Nowy Sacz Basin, West Carpathians, Poland.

Systematics

The circumscription of the genus has varied greatly. Phylogenetic studies have shown that the widely used broad circumscription as a pantropical genus is polyphyletic, but it remains to be seen how this will affect the classification of the genus. Five polyphyletic clades of Schefflera exist, all of which are geographically isolated from one another. This implies parallel evolution of traits within the genus.

Species

See: List of Schefflera species

Taxonomy

The genus has had a turbulent taxonomic history; the list of synonyms includes: