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<p style="text-align:center; color:#880; font-weight:bold">Excerpts from Jim Conrad's<br>
<a href="../n/index.htm" style="font-size:32px">Naturalist Newsletter</a></p>
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<p><span style="color:#888; font-weight:bold">from the October 22, 2017 Newsletter, a special on-the-road edition with notes from near Tepotzlán, Morelos state, MÉXICO, elevation about 5315 ft (1620m), at 18°592 073 N 99°052 593 W<br>
<span style="color:#f00; font-size:26px">FRUITING SCHEFFLERA</span></span><br> I surprised my host by not recognizing a certain 20-ft tall tree with very distinctive, palmately compound leaves, and producing large, conspicuous fruiting heads, as shown below on a branch at the tree's top:</p>

<img src="../n/17/171022sc.jpg" alt="HEPTAPLEURUM ACTINOPHYLLA, leaves and fruiting head">

<p>One of the tree's palmately compound leaves is nicely displayed at the picture's top, right corner. Notice how the stem-like petiolules of the leaf's many leaflets converge at the top of the leaf's stiff petiole. Below, you can see a close-up of some fruits:</p>

<img src="../n/17/171022sd.jpg" alt="HEPTAPLEURUM ACTINOPHYLLA, fruits">

<p>"It's a Schefflera," my friend told me, "often seen as a potted plant in houses up North, and in gardens in warmer areas."
</p>
<p> Scheffleras are members of the Aralia Family, the Araliaceae, which often produce palmately compound leaves like these.
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<p> It turns out that my friend was only half right. The Schefflera commonly grow up North as a houseplant, and famous for tolerating neglect and poor growing conditions, is <i>Schefflera arboricola</i>, native to Taiwan. <div style="width:40%; background-color:#ffc; float:right; color:#660; font-size:11pt; padding:5px; margin-left:9px; border:#660 1px solid"><b>*UPDATE:</b> Later both the houseplant <i>Schefflera arboricola</i> and my friend's <i>Schefflera actinophylla</i> were reassigned to the genus <i>Heptapleurum</i>. Now they are called <i>Heptapleurum arboricola</i> and HEPTAPLEURUM ACTINOPHYLA.</div>
My friend's tree near Tepotzlán was a larger species, *SCHEFFLERA ACTINOPHYLLA, native to Australia, New Guinea and Java, and much grown outside in tropical climates worldwide.
</p>
<p> My friend's tree loaded with fruits sometimes is known as Umbrella Tree, Octopus Tree and Amate -- names shared with other species. In the tree's native environment, its fruits are eaten by many bird species, and animals such as Musky Rat-kangaroos, Red-legged Pademelons, and Spectacled Flying Foxes.
</p>
<p> In Florida and Hawaii the species has become an aggressive weed-tree.
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