Heptapleurum actinophyllum | |
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In Hyderabad, India | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Asterids |
Order: | Apiales |
Family: | Araliaceae |
Genus: | Heptapleurum |
Species: | H. actinophyllum |
Binomial name | |
Heptapleurum actinophyllum (Endl.) Lowry & G.M.Plunkett | |
Synonyms [1] | |
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Heptapleurum actinophyllum (formerly Schefflera actinophylla) is a tree in the family Araliaceae. [1] [2] It is native to tropical rainforests and gallery forests in northern and north-eastern Queensland coasts and the Northern Territory of Australia, as well as New Guinea and Java. Common names include Australian umbrella tree, Queensland umbrella tree, octopus tree and amate.
Heptapleurum actinophyllum is an evergreen tree growing to 15 m (50 feet) tall. It has palmately compound medium green leaves in groups of seven leaflets. It is usually multi-trunked, and the flowers develop at the top of the tree. [3] It often grows as a hemiepiphyte on other rainforest trees. [4] : 43 It produces racemes up to 2 m (6.5 feet) long containing up to 1,000 small red flowers. Flowering begins in early summer and typically continues for several months.
The specific epithet actinophyllum means "with radiating leaves". [5]
The up to 1,000 flowers produced by the plant generate large amounts of nectar, attracting nectar-eating birds that pollinate them. The fruits are eaten by many birds and animals including musky rat-kangaroos, red-legged pademelons and spectacled flying foxes. [6] Its leaves are a favourite food of the Bennett's tree-kangaroo. [7] [ verification needed ] [4] [8] : 105
It is commonly grown in mild to warm climates as a decorative tree in larger gardens and, when mature, it has red spikes of flowers with up to 20 racemes which develop in summer or early autumn. Propagation is by seed or cuttings. It prefers well-drained soil and only needs occasional watering and feeding to thrive. It is, however, an aggressive plant and its roots can dominate surrounding soil. In some areas (e.g., Florida and Hawaii, USA), it is an invasive weed and therefore planting is highly unadvised. [9]
With a minimum temperature of 13 °C (55 °F), juvenile specimens are grown in temperate regions as houseplants. [10] This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. [11] [12]
Grevillea, commonly known as spider flowers, is a genus of about 360 species of evergreen flowering plants in the family Proteaceae. Plants in the genus Grevillea are shrubs, rarely trees, with the leaves arranged alternately along the branches, the flowers zygomorphic, arranged in racemes at the ends of branchlets, and the fruit a follicle that splits down one side only, releasing one or two seeds.
Eucryphia is a small genus of trees and large shrubs native to the south temperate regions of South America and coastal eastern Australia, mainly Tasmania. Sometimes placed in a family of their own, the Eucryphiaceae, more recent classifications place them in the Cunoniaceae. There are seven species, two in South America and five in Australia, and several named hybrids.
Umbrella tree can refer to several items:
Grevillea robusta, commonly known as the southern silky oak, silk oak or silky oak, silver oak or Australian silver oak, is a flowering plant in the family Proteaceae. It is a tree, the largest species in its genus but is not closely related to the true oaks, Quercus. It is a native of eastern coastal Australia, growing in riverine, subtropical and dry rainforest environments.
Schefflera arboricola is a flowering plant in the family Araliaceae, native to Taiwan and Hainan Province, China. Its common name is dwarf umbrella tree, as it resembles a smaller version of the umbrella tree, Schefflera actinophylla. Current taxonomy places both species in the genus Heptapleurum.
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 4–20 metres (13–66 ft) tall, with woody stems, the absence of articulated pedicels and armaments, and palmately compound leaves.
Bennett's tree-kangaroo is a large tree-kangaroo. Males can weigh from 11.5 kg up to almost 14 kg, while the females range between about 8 to 10.6 kg. They are very agile and are able to leap 9 metres (30 ft) down to another branch and have been known to drop as far as 18 metres (59 ft) to the ground without injury.
Proiphys amboinensis was named after the island of Ambiona, now Ambon, in Indonesia. Common names include Cardwell lily and northern Christmas lily. It is considered native to Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, the Bismark Archipelago, Vanuatu, New Guinea, Queensland and Western Australia. Is also naturalized in Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Solomon Islands, Niue, Society Islands, Caroline Islands and Mariana Islands.
Semecarpus australiensis, commonly known as the tar tree, native cashew, marking nut, or cedar plum, is a species of tree in the cashew, sumac and mango family Anacardiaceae, native to parts of Melanesia and northern Australia. Contact with the plant can cause serious allergic reactions, a common characteristic of this family.
Maniltoa lenticellata is a flowering tropical tree in the family Fabaceae. It is native to tropical semi-deciduous rainforest and gallery forests in northern Queensland, some of the Torres Strait Islands, and New Guinea. Common names include: silk handkerchief tree, cascading bean, and native handkerchief tree.
Homalanthus populifolius, the bleeding heart, native poplar or Queensland poplar, is an Australian rainforest plant in the family Euphorbiaceae. It often appears in areas of rainforest disturbance. Bleeding heart is highly regarded by rainforest regenerators because of its fast growth and use as a pioneer species in rainforest regeneration.
Dendrobium bigibbum, commonly known as the Cooktown orchid or mauve butterfly orchid, is an epiphytic or lithophytic orchid in the family Orchidaceae. It has cylindrical pseudobulbs, each with between three and five green or purplish leaves and arching flowering stems with up to twenty, usually lilac-purple flowers. It occurs in tropical North Queensland, Australia and New Guinea.
Elaeocarpus eumundi, commonly known as Eumundi quandong, or smooth-leaved quandong, is a species of flowering plant in the family Elaeocarpaceae and is endemic to north-eastern Australia. It is a mid-sized tree with egg-shaped to lance-shaped leaves, racemes of cream-coloured flowers and blue fruit. It grows in rainforest from the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland to north-eastern New South Wales.
Dendrobium smillieae, commonly known as the bottlebrush orchid, is an epiphytic or lithophytic orchid with large, spongy pseudobulbs, thin, bright green leaves which are shed after their first year and crowded flowers in a bottlebrush-like arrangement. The flowers are white, to cream-coloured or pink and the labellum has a shiny, dark green tip. This orchid species is found in some of the Torres Strait Islands, and through Cape York Peninsula to Townsville, Queensland. It is also found in New Guinea and eastern Indonesia.
Corymbia tessellaris, commonly known as carbeen or Moreton Bay ash, is a species of tree that is endemic to north-eastern Australia. It has rough, tessellated bark on the lower trunk abruptly changing to smooth, whitish bark above, narrow lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of three or seven, white flowers and cylindrical or urn-shaped fruit
Pouteria eerwah is a rare species of Australian rainforest tree in the family Sapotaceae. Common names include shiny-leaved condoo, black plum and wild apple. It is endemic to south eastern Queensland, with a restricted distribution and regarded as endangered. There is discussion whether this plant should remain named as Planchonella eerwah.
Dysoxylum pettigrewianum, commonly known as spur mahogany, spurwood, or Cairns satinwood is a species of large tropical rainforest tree in the family Meliaceae found in Queensland, New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Malesia. In Queensland it is found in the wet tropics from Rossville near Cooktown in the north, southwards to Tully.
Dillenia alata, commonly known as red beech, golden guinea flower or golden guinea tree, is a tree in the Dilleniaceae family, found in tropical forests of the Moluccas, New Guinea, and northern Australia.
Garcinia warrenii, a is a fruit-bearing tree, up to 15 metres in height, of the mangosteen family (Clusiaceae), commonly known as native mangosteen or Warren's mangosteen. It is found in the tropical rainforests of northern and north-eastern Australia and New Guinea. The genus Garcinia, belonging to the family Clusiaceae, includes about 200 species found in the Old World tropics, mostly in Asia and Africa. Garcinia warrenii is indigenous to New Guinea, the Torres Strait Islands, northeastern Queensland from Cape York Peninsula south to Babinda, and a small, isolated population on Melville Island in the Northern Territory, Australia.
Myristica insipida, commonly known in Australia as Australian nutmeg, Queensland nutmeg or native nutmeg, is a small rainforest tree in the family Myristicaceae native to parts of Malesia, Papuasia and Australia. It is closely related to the commercially-important species of nutmeg, M. fragrans.