Dendropanax is a genus of evergreen trees and shrubs in the ginseng family, Araliaceae (order Apiales), first described by Joseph Decaisne and Jules Émile Planchon in 1854. Estimates of its size vary by source — around 80 to 92 species — reflecting a broad and disjunct native distribution across tropical Central and South America and eastern Asia, with Wikipedia additionally citing the Malay Peninsula; China alone hosts 14 species, seven of them endemic.
Plants in the genus are unarmed and glabrous, with simple or palmately 2- to 3(-5)-lobed leaves that are often marked with small yellow or red glandular dots and have entire or sparsely toothed margins. Flowers are borne in terminal umbels, small racemes of umbels, or compound umbels, and are hermaphroditic or andromonoecious (bearing both bisexual and later-blooming male flowers on the same plant). Each flower has an entire or five-toothed calyx, five valvate petals, five stamens, and an ovary of two to five carpels; the fruit is a drupe.
Taxonomically, Dendropanax has absorbed several older generic names now treated as synonyms, including Gilibertia, Ginannia, Mesopanax, Textoria, and Wangenheimia.
The best-known member is Dendropanax trifidus, called "kakuremino" in Japanese, which is cultivated in traditional roji gardens — the moist, mossy approach paths leading to the chashitsu used for tea ceremonies.
Distribution
Sources disagree on scope: Wikipedia describes roughly 92 species native to Central and South America, eastern Asia, and the Malay Peninsula, while the Flora of China treatment gives about 80 species across tropical America and eastern Asia, with 14 species (seven endemic) occurring in China.
Taxonomy Notes
Dendropanax (family Araliaceae, order Apiales) was described by Joseph Decaisne and Jules Émile Planchon in 1854 (Rev. Hort. (Paris), sér. 4, 3: 107). Several older genera are now treated as synonyms, including Gilibertia, Ginannia, Mesopanax, Textoria, and Wangenheimia.
Cultural Uses
Dendropanax trifidus ("kakuremino" in Japanese) is grown in traditional roji gardens, the moist and mossy approach paths leading to the chashitsu used for tea ceremonies.
