Plerandra elegantissima (Veitch ex Mast.) Lowry, G.M. Plunkett & Frodin, 2013.

Verloove, Filip, 2021, New records in vascular plants alien to Tenerife (Spain, Canary Islands), Biodiversity Data Journal 9, pp. 62878-62878 : 62878

Plerandra elegantissima (Veitch ex Mast.) Lowry, G.M. Plunkett & Frodin, 2013.

Plerandra elegantissima Brittonia 65: 49. 2013.

Plerandra elegantissima Syn.: Schefflera elegantissima (Veitch ex Mast.) Lowry & Frodin, Baileya 23: 9. 1989; Dizygotheca elegantissima (Veitch ex Mast.) R. Vig. & Guillaumin, Notul. Syst. (Paris) 2: 258. 1912; Aralia elegantissima Veitch ex Mast., Gard. Chron. 1873: 782. 1873.

Distribution

TENERIFE: Puerto de la Cruz, in front of Hotel Masaru, in planter, a sapling ca. 150 cm tall, self-sown, 14.12.2019, F. Verloove 13727 (BR). https://observation.org/observation/205286440/

Notes

This species was initially described as a species of Aralia L., then transferred to Schefflera J.R. Forst. & G. Forst. However, molecular studies ( Lowry II et al. 2013) have demonstrated that Schefflera , the largest genus of the Araliaceae family, is grossly polyphyletic. The species, belonging to the Melanesian clade, are preferably accommodated in a separate genus, Plerandra A. Gray. It counts 32 species that are restricted to Melanesia (Fiji, New Caledonia, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu). A few species are commonly cultivated as ornamentals, especially P. elegantissima .

Plerandra elegantissima is endemic to New Caledonia, but widely cultivated for its decorative juvenile foliage that is palmately divided, formed by 7-12 almost linear leaflets with grossly and irregularly dentate margins. Like other species of Schefflera s.l., fruits are drupaceous and thus consumed by berry-eating birds. As a result, ornamental species of this genus are easily dispersed; they are particularly frequent as epiphytes on palm trees, also in the Canary Islands, where S. actinophylla (Endl.) Harms and S. arboricola (Hayata) Merr. are increasingly recorded (e.g. Verloove and Reyes-Betancort 2011, Verloove 2017, Otto and Verloove 2018). Up to now, P. elegantissima had only been recorded from La Palma in the Canary Islands ( Otto and Verloove 2016). It was observed to freely reproduce from seed in ornamental gardens and public greens. In Tenerife, it was seen in comparable circumstances in December 2019.

Plerandra elegantissima is an emerging invasive weed in some parts of the world, for instance, in South Africa (several online references).