FoI
Shield Aralia
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Shield Aralia
ntroduced Photo: Dinesh Valke
Common name: Shield Aralia, Plum Aralia, Balfour aralia
Botanical name: Polyscias scutellaria    Family: Araliaceae (Ivy family)

Shield Aralia are treelets or small trees, 2-6 m tall. Leaves 1- or 2-pinnate; leaf stalk 35-30 cm, enlarged and clasping at base, alate for 1-6 cm with membranous wings; petiolules 1-5 cm; leaflets 1, 3, or 5 (rarely 2 or 4), broadly elliptic to oblate or kidney-shaped, occasionally ovate or obovate, 5-20 × 5-20 cm, papery to subleathery, base shallowly heart-shaped or convex, margin subentire to serrates. Tiny flowers occur in erect panicles of umbels. Shield Aralia is native to Africa to the Pacific Islands.

Identification credit: Nandan Kalbag & Dinesh Valke
Photographed in Maharashtra.
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