Scientific Name : Schefflera heptaphylla (L.) Frodin
Common Name : Ivy Tree
Chinese Name : 鵝掌柴, 鴨腳木
Family : ARALIACEAE
Local distribution status : Native species
| Origins | Southern to western provinces of China. It also has distribution in Japan, Vietnam, Thailand and India. |
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| Meanings of name | The leaves of this species are palmately compound, resembling the outline of poultry feet. Hence, the Chinese names “Goose Foot Firewood (鵝掌柴)” and “Duck Foot Wood(鴨腳木)” were given. The species epithet in its scientific name “heptaphylla”, consisting of “hepta” and “phyllum”, means “seven leaves”, indicating around seven leaflets in the palmately compound leaf. |
| Ecology | Ivy Tree is a common species in tropical and subtropical evergreen broadleaf forests, also being a native plant in Hong Kong which is very common. Since its flowering period lies between autumn and winter, when a season with limited nectar and fruits, the Ivy Tree is a good nectar plant that helps the wild animals to overwinter. |
| Application | The bark of the Ivy Tree is one of the raw ingredients for Guangdong herbal tea “24 Herbs' Tea”, performing the functions of inducing sweating to release the exterior, dispelling wind and eliminating dampness, comforting sinew, as well as preventing influenza. The wood is light and soft, easy to be processed, and can be used to make matches, steamers and sieves. Flora of Guangdong states that people in Fujian have used the wood to cultivate edible mushrooms Tremella fuciformis Berk. |
| Growing habit | Evergreen tree or shrub. |
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| Height | To 10 m. |
| Stems | Bark of trunk greyish brown, smooth, branching low. Diameter at Breast Height (DBH) of main trunk to 30 cm above. Crown broad. Branchlets robust. |
| Leaves | Palmately compound. Leaflets often 6 to 8, elliptic, oblong-elliptic to obovate-elliptic, papery to leathery. Apex acute to shortly acuminate. Margin entire, often serrate or pinnately lobed when young. Lateral veins 7 to 10 pairs, slightly raised abaxially. With petiolules, united at base; the central ones longer, the lateral ones shorter, like a hand in outline. |
| Flowers | Andromonoecious. Panicles terminal, formed by many umbels. Terminal umbels with bisexual flowers, lateral umbels with bisexual or more often male flowers. Flowers small and fragrant. Petals white. |
| Fruits | Drupe globose, black when mature. |
| Flowering period | August to September in Hong Kong. |
| Fruiting period | December to February in Hong Kong. |
Scientific name above is based on Hong Kong Herbarium website : https://www.herbarium.gov.hk/en/hk-plant-database/plant-detail/index.html?pType=species&oID=4480
Scientific names from other databases
― Flora of China : Schefflera heptaphylla (Linnaeus) Frodin
― Plants of the World Online : Schefflera heptaphylla (L.) Frodin