Tetrapanax

Rice paper tree ( Tetrapanax papyrifer )

The rice paper tree ( Tetrapanax papyrifer ) is the only species of the genus within the family of Araliaceae Tetrapanax ( Araliaceae ). It is native to China.

• 5.1 Notes and references

Description

Appearance and leaf

The rice paper tree grows as evergreen shrub or small tree that reaches the stature heights of up to 3.5 meters. The trunk and branches have no spines. The trunk has a diameter up to 9 inches and his marrow is homogeneous and white. Many parts of the plant are covered with densely woolly rust-colored to light brown stellate hairs.

The alternate arranged leaves are large and divided into petiole and leaf blade. The round stem and petiole bald has a length of up to 50 centimeters. The simple, papery to leathery leaf blade is almost seven to twelve lobes which terminate at a width of 50 to 75 centimeters in outline ovate -oblong, blunt to heart- shaped Spreitenbasis palmate pointed. The leaf edges are sawn smooth to coarse. The lower leaf surface is hairy and the upper leaf surface glabrous. The two distinctive, free stipules are pfriemförmig at a length of 7 to 8 centimeters.

Inflorescence and flower

The flowering period extends into China from October to December. The terminally standing on a 1 to 1.5 cm long inflorescence stem, branched, Rispige total inflorescence is composed of doldigen part inflorescences, which have a diameter of 1 to 2 centimeters and contain many flowers. The inflorescence axes are initially densely hairy and verkahlen later.

The hermaphrodite flowers are radial symmetry and usually four or rarely fünfzählig double perianth. The four or five at a length of about 1 millimeter hardly recognizable sepals are hairy woolly. The four or rarely five about 2 millimeters long petals are hairy yellowish- whitish and woolly. It's just a circle with four or rarely five stamens present. The stamens are 3 millimeters long. Two carpels are fused into one inferior ovary. The two free pens are erect at anthesis and curved back later.

Fruit and seeds

The case of a diameter of about 4 mm spherical, slightly flattened laterally stone fruits turn dark purple when ripe. The laterally flattened seeds contain endosperm. The fruits ripen in China from January to February.

Chromosome number

The chromosome number is 2n = 48

Occurrence

Tetrapanax papyrifer thrives in mixed thickets at altitudes 100-2800 m. Locality data are available for Taiwan and the Chinese provinces of Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, southwestern Sichuan, Yunnan and northwestern Zhejiang.

System

The first publication of this kind took place in 1852 under the name by William Jackson Hooker in Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany, Volume 4, pages 50 and 53, Table 1-2. 1859, Karl Heinrich Koch first subgenus Didymopanax subg. Tetrapanax with the type species Tetrapanax papyrifer in the weekly journal for gardening and botany, Volume 2, page 371, where the notation " papyriferum " on. Later he gave her the rank of a genus Tetrapanax. Other synonyms for Tetrapanax papyrifer ( Hook. ) K.Koch are: Aralia papyrifera Hook, Aralia mairei H.Lév, Fatsia papyrifera ( Hook. ) Miq. .. ex Witte, Didymopanax papyriferus ( Hook. ) K.Koch, Echinopanax papyriferus ( Hook. ) Kuntze, Panax papyrifer ( Hook. ) F.Muell ..

Tetrapanax papyrifer is the only species of the genus Tetrapanax ( K.Koch ) K.Koch in the subfamily Aralioideae within the Araliaceae family.

Use

Tetrapanax papyrifer is cultivated as a medicinal plant and used under the name " tong cao " in traditional Chinese medicine. In tropical to subtropical parks and gardens Tetrapanax papyrifer is used as an ornamental plant. The pith of the stem is cut into pieces and named to the paper, " rice paper ", processed, of which the specific epithet is derived from papyrifer.

Swell

• Qibai Xiang & Porter P. Lowry: Araliaceae in the Flora of China, Volume 13, p 440: genus and species - Online. (Section Description, systematics, occurrence and use)