Schefflera actinophylla

Non-Native to Florida

Appearance: Evergreen tree to 12 m (40 ft) tall, with single or multi-stemmed trunks and greenish bark.

Leaves: Alternate with petioles to 61 cm (2 ft) long; palmately compound with mostly 7–16 leaflets, these shiny, light green, oblanceolate, to 30 cm (12 in) long; margins entire (or sparsely toothed when young).

Flowers: 25 mm (1 in) across, borne in dense clusters that form a large, red, showy inflorescence at stem tips above foliage.

Fruit: A purplish black, round, fleshy drupe to 7 mm (0.25 in) in diameter.

Ecological threat: Invading endangered remnants of scrub habitat, where it is shading out listed rare plants such as the Florida-threatened scrub pinweed. Extremely invasive in undisturbed tropical hardwood hammocks of Dade County. FLEPPC Category I Distribution: C, SW, SE

Text from Invasive and Non-Native Plants You Should Know, Recognition Cards, by A. Richard and V. Ramey, 2007. UF/IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants, Publ. No. SP 431.

See more information and pictures about schefflera, as contained in the Langeland/Burks book, Identification & Biology of Non-Native Plants in Florida's Natural Areas.

View the UF/IFAS Assessment, which lists plants according to their invasive status in Florida.