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Araliaceae
Schefflera Family
By: George Rogers
About 60 genera and 800 species of trees, shrubs, and woody
vines. Leaves alternate, usually pinnately or palmately compound. Flowers small,
having 5 sepals and 5 petals, the ovaries inferior, the flowers in umbels or
compound umbels. Fruits usually drupes. An important cultivated family
containing English Ivy, the Scheffleras, Aralias, False-Aralias, and Ginseng.
Key to Araliaceae Commonly Cultivated in South Florida (some
data from HUX)
1. Vines…English Ivy (Hedera helix)
1. Shrubs or small trees…2
2. Leaves palmately lobed…Fatsia (Fatsia
japonica)
2. Leaves compound…3 (note 3 choices)
3A. Leaves in a congested whorl beneath the inflorescence…Miagos Bush (Osmoxylon
lineare)
3B. Leaves palmately compound…4
3C. Leaves pinnately compound (or with 3 leaflets)…6
4. Leaflets very narrow (<1/2”) with toothy margins…False Aralia (Schefflera
(Dizygotheca) elegantissima)
4. Leaflets > ½” wide, toothless…5
5. Leaflets to about 6” long; plants usually modest shrubs…Dwarf Schefflera (Schefflera
arboricola)
5. Leaflets longer than 6”; plants large shrubs or small trees…Umbrella-Tree (Schefflera
actinophylla)
6. Leaves bipinnate or tripinnate…Ming-Aralia (Polyscias
fruticosa)
(Consider also
Polyscias guilfoylei ‘Laciniata’
which has bipinnate leaves with 5 primary leaflets.)
6. Leaves once-pinnate or with 3 leaflets…7
7. Leaflets >5 in number…9
7. Leaflets (1)3-5…8
8. Leaflets 3, the central one smallest, the lateral ones
split at the apex…Polyscias
crispata
8. Leaflets (1)3(5), the middle one largest, the apices
rounded…Polyscias
scutellaria
9. Leaflets 9-17, narrowly elliptic, attenuate at the base and apex, often
prominently lobed…Angelica (Polyscias
filicifolia)
9. Leaflets 5-9, orbicular to oblong-elliptic, merely toothed
(or subtly lobed)…Geranium-Aralia (Polyscias
guilfoylei) (often variegated, leaflets often deformed)
Other plants in the manual include:
Centella asiatica
Hydrocotyle umbellata
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