Ivy Tree

This species is used for its timber and also medicinally.

Trees, to 15 m tall, andromonoecious. Petiole (5-)10-30 cm; petiolules 1.5-5 cm; leaflets 6-9(-11), elliptic to oblong-elliptic or obovate-elliptic, 7-18 × 3-5 cm, papery to leathery, densely stellate pubescent when young, glabrescent except on midvein and in axils of veins, secondary veins 7-10 pairs, tertiary veins inconspicuous, base attenuate or cuneate to obtuse or rounded, margin entire, often serrate or pinnately lobed on young plants, apex abruptly acute to acuminate. Inflorescence a terminal panicle of umbels, densely stellate tomentose, glabrescent; primary axis to 35 cm; secondary axes 25(-35) cm, with a terminal umbel of bisexual flowers and several to many lateral umbels of bisexual or more often male flowers, usually also with 1 to several bisexual flowers borne just below apical umbel; pedicels 4-5 mm. Calyx pubescent at first, entire or 5- or 6-toothed. Ovary 5-9(or 10)-carpellate; styles united into a thick column less than 1.5 mm. Fruit globose, ca. 5 mm in diam., inconspicuously angled when dry; styles persistent, to ca. 1.5 mm. Fl. Sep-Dec, fr. Dec-Feb.

Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi, SE Xizang, Yunnan, S Zhejiang [India, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam].

Evergreen broad-leaved forests on mountain slopes; 100-2100 m.

Vitis heptaphylla Linnaeus, Mant. Pl. 2: 212. 1771; Aralia octophylla Loureiro; Heptapleurum octophyllum (Loureiro) Bentham ex Hance; Paratropia cantoniensis Hooker & Arnott; Schefflera atrifoliata R. H. Miao; S. octophylla (Loureiro) Harms; S. rubriflora C. J. Tseng & G. Hoo.

Flowering from September to December; fruiting from December to February.

Schefflera heptaphylla is occurring in Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi, SE Xizang, Yunnan, S Zhejiang of China, India, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam.

Several recent phylogenetic studies have shown that Schefflera is clearly polyphyletic (Lowry et al., 2004; Plunkett et al., 2004; Plunkett et al., 2005) and Schefflera heptaphylla belong to a single, well-supported, morphologically coherent Asia/Malesia clade.

Trees, to 15 m tall, andromonoecious. Petiole (5-) 10-30 cm long; petiolules 1.5-5 cm long; leaflets 6-9 (-11), elliptic to oblong-elliptic or obovate-elliptic, 7-18 cm long, 3-5 cm wide, papery to leathery, densely stellate pubescent when young, glabrescent except on midvein and in axils of veins, secondary veins 7-10 pairs, tertiary veins inconspicuous, base attenuate or cuneate to obtuse or rounded, margin entire, often serrate or pinnately lobed on young plants, apex abruptly acute to acuminate. Inflorescence a terminal panicle of umbels, densely stellate tomentose, glabrescent; primary axis to 35 cm long; secondary axes 25(-35) cm long, with a terminal umbel of bisexual flowers and several to many lateral umbels of bisexual or more often male flowers, usually also with 1 to several bisexual flowers borne just below apical umbel; pedicels 4-5 mm long. Calyx pubescent at first, entire or 5- or 6-toothed. Ovary 5-9 (or 10)-carpellate; styles united into a thick column less than 1.5 mm. Fruit globose, ca. 5 mm in diameter, inconspicuously angled when dry; styles persistent, to ca. 1.5 mm long.

Growing in evergreen broad-leaved forests on mountain slopes; 100-2100 m.

Schefflera heptaphylla is used for its timber and also medicinally.

Heptapleurum heptaphyllum is a species of flowering plant in the family Araliaceae, native to southern China, Indo-China and Japan. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1771 as Vitis heptaphylla.

Schefflera rubriflora was assessed as "critically endangered" in the 2004 IUCN Red List, where it was considered endemic to Yunnan in China, but as of January 2023 was treated as part of the much more widely distributed Heptapleurum heptaphyllum.