Schefflera actinophylla

Non-Native to Florida

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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.

Download the Recognition Card of Schefflera actinophylla (PDF 528 KB).

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.