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Umbrella plant6/1/2023 ![]() Numerous cultivars have been selected for variations in leaf colour and pattern, often variegated with creamy-white to yellow edges or centres, and dwarf forms. It is also grown as a landscape (garden) plant in milder climates where frosts are not severe. Heptapleurum arboricola is commonly grown as a houseplant, popular for its tolerance of neglect and poor growing conditions. It has also been introduced to the Ryukyu Islands, Hawaii, Florida, Bermuda, and Jamaica. It is now found in the northern, tropical regions of Australia in areas of Queensland, it has been noted to significantly compete with native species. This species is indigenous to China, but has widely naturalized elsewhere. The fruits are inedible to humans, but may be consumed (and spread elsewhere) by various birds, parrots or other animals. The fruits ripen from late summer to early winter. The fruits have an almost spherical oval drupe, with a diameter of about 5 mm. The style is not recognizable and the stigma is established. They are composed of an entire annular calyx, five almost fully developed sepals, a corolla with five petals 2.5 mm long, with five stamens and five or six carpels that enclose the ovary. The flowers are hermaphroditic, having a colour ranging from yellow to green and a double perianth radial symmetry. ![]() Flowers Īppearing from midsummer to early autumn, the flowers are produced in a 20 cm panicle of small umbels, each umbel 7–10 mm in diameter with 5–10 flowers. The stipules merge with the petiole, the length of which is 12-15 cm. Each leaflet has a central rib that divides it into two halves, with between four and six ribs clearly visible up to the third order. Young plants have smaller leaves and fewer leaflets. The leaves are leathery in texture, shiny green, glabrous on the upper surface and somewhat lighter and matte on the underside. The leaves are palmately compound, with 7–9 leaflets, the leaflets 9–20 cm long and 4–10 cm broad (though often smaller in cultivation) with a wedge-shaped base, entire margin, and an obtuse or acute apex, sometimes emarginate. It is an evergreen shrub growing to 8–9 m tall, free-standing, or clinging to the trunks of other trees as an epiphyte.
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