Volume 14 > Part 2 > Year 2019 > Page 239 > Araliaceae > Schefflera

16. Schefflera pueckleri (K.Koch) Frodinwfo-0000306249

in Whitmore, Tree Fl. Malaya 3: 31. 1978 (misapplied for S. subintegra); Baileya 23: 10. 1989; in Frodin & Govaerts, World Checkl. Bibliogr. Araliac.: 369. 2004 (‘2003‘); S.Gardner et al., Forest Trees S. Thailand 1: 238. 2015.— Tupidanthus pueckleri K.Koch, Wochenschr. Gärtnerei Pflanzenk. 2: 348. 1859; Harms in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 3.8: 28. 1894.

Description : Epiphytic shrubs or climbers, 3–5 m (outside of Thailand to 30 m) tall, basal diam. to 15 cm, or up to 8 m across, occasionally lithophytic, or rarely a rosette tree to 10 m tall; branches glabrous. Leaves glabrous; stipules rounded, 12–20 mm long, apically free; petiole 17–44 cm long; leaflets (7–)8–11, their petiolules 1.5–6 cm long, often variable within the same leaf, obovate-elliptic, 10–22 by 6–8 cm, membranous, base obtuse to rounded, margin entire, apex mucronate to acuminate, glabrous throughout, only slightly brighter beneath, venation indistinct, side veins in ca 15–19 pairs but intersecondaries distinct and often enlarging the number. Inflorescence ramiflorous and cauline, brownish, ca 10–20 cm long, a pedunculate cluster of 2 to 3 short racemes, basally subtended by large persistent or deciduous leathery bracts ca 1.5 by 1 cm; racemes 8 to 20 cm overall, bearing 4 to 5 umbels, these subtended by ovate bracts ca 1.5 by 1 cm with an acute apex; sparsely pubescent with pale, stellate, dendritic hairs ca 0.1 mm in diam., but most parts glabrous; umbel peduncles 1.5–5 cm long; umbels ca 2.5–4 cm in diam., with 3–5 flowers. Flowers: pedicel 6–12 mm long, notably thick (2–4 mm in diam.); calyx rounded, ca 0.9–1.5 cm across, but drying wrinkled; disc elliptic in outline, to 3 by 2 cm, light green, stigmas yellow; petals calyptrate; stamens more or less approximating the number of locules and stigmas; stigmas and locules up to ca 60–140 in number; on drying the stylar column, which is normally flush with the disc surface becomes prominent. Fruits greyish-green to brownish, glabrous; pedicel 15–20 mm long; drupes wider than long, ca 15–20 by 20–35 mm, irregularly oblique-sulcate; seeds apparently only developing in under 5% of the locules.

Thailand : NORTHERN: Chiang Mai (Doi Chiang Dao, Doi Inthanon, Doi Suthep-Pui, Doi Pha Hom Pok), Chiang Rai (Doi Tung), Lamphun (Doi Khun Tan), Lampang (Doi Khun Tan), Nan (Doi Phu Kha), Kamphaeng Phet (Mae Wong); SOUTH-WESTERN: Kanchanaburi (Kriti, Huai Bangkan, Thong Pha Phum).

Distribution : India (Assam), Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, S China (type a plant cultivated in Germany).

Ecology : In primary hill evergreen forests, disturbed mixed deciduous forests, over limestone and granite, 750–1,600 m alt. Flowering and fruiting: probably the whole year through (flowering: March–July, September; fruiting: November–January, March–August.).

Uses: Sometimes cultivated as ornamental, already flowering when still very small.

Notes: The hugely polymerous fruits, with upwards of 100 locules distinguishes this species readily. Schefflera calyptrata Merr., described from Borneo, means that the combination of the earliest name (1856) is already occupied, and Koch’s later (1859) name must be used.

E-version notes : Heptapleurum calyptratum (Hook.f. & Thomson) Y.F.Deng
Med. Fl. China 7: 469. 2018.
— Tupidanthus calyptratus Hook.f. & Thomson, Bot. Mag. 82: t. 4908. 1856 (non Schefflera calyptrata Merr., Philipp. J. Sc., Bot. 13: 101. 1918); Kurz, Forest Fl. Burma 1: 542. 1877; C.B.Clarke in Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 2: 740. 1879; Harms in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 3.8: 28, fig. 4 D–F. 1894; R.Vig. In Lecomte, Fl. Indo-Chine 2(9): 1170, fig. 139 1–3. 1923; Craib, Fl. Siam. 1: 805. 1931; H.L.Li, Sargentia 2: 12. 1942; G.Hoo & C.J.Tseng, Fl. Reipubl. Popul. Sin. 54: 7, pl. 1 fig. 1–4. 1978; P.H.Hô, Câyco Viêtnam 2: 611, pl. 5368. 1993; C.B.Shang & Lowry, Fl. China 13: 438. 2007.