Murraya paniculata

Murraya paniculata is a tree that typically grows to a height of but often flowers and forms fruit as a shrub, and has smooth pale to whitish bark. It has pinnate leaves up to long with up to seven egg-shaped to elliptical or rhombus-shaped. The leaflets are glossy green and glabrous, long and wide on a petiolule long. The flowers are fragrant and are arranged in loose groups, each flower on a pedicel about long. There are five (sometimes four) sepals about long and five (sometimes four) white or cream-coloured petals long. and the fruit is an oval, glabrous, orange-red berry long containing densely hairy seeds. Phenology Flowering occurs from June to March in Australia, and the fruit ripen between January and October. In the northern hemisphere flowering occurs from April to October and fruit ripen from April to February. ==Taxonomy==

This species was first described and illustrated by Georg Eberhard Rumphius in the latter half of the 17th century during his time in what was then known as the Dutch East Indies, and published posthumously in 1747. However the first formal description was produced in 1767 by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus who gave it the name Chalcas paniculata and published it in his book Mantissa Plantarum, which is an appendix to the 12th edition of his earlier work Systema Naturae. In 1820 the Scottish botanist William Jack changed the name to Murraya paniculata in his book Descriptions of Malayan Plants [Malayan Miscellanies]. ==Distribution and habitat==

Murraya paniculata grows in rainforest, often as an understorey shrub in vine thickets, including behind beaches. It is native to South and Southeast Asia, China and Australasia, while the distribution area extends from Pakistan via India, Sri Lanka and southern China to Taiwan, the Philippines, where it is called kamuníng, the Ryūkyū Islands and the Mariana Islands, to the south via Malaysia and Indonesia to New Guinea and parts of Australia. The species has been naturalised in other places, sometimes becoming an invasive weed, including on many Pacific islands. In Queensland, it is regarded as different from the cultivated form Murraya paniculata 'Exotica', which is regarded as one of the most invasive plant species in southeast Queensland. ==Cultivation==

Murraya paniculata is cultivated as an ornamental tree or hedge because of its hardiness, wide range of soil tolerance (M. paniculata may grow in alkaline, clayey, sandy, acidic and loamy soils), and is suitable for larger hedges. The plant flowers throughout the year and produces small, fragrant flower clusters which attract bees, while the fruits attract small frugivorous birds. Propagation The orange jessamine is sexually propagated by its seeds. The fruits are eaten by birds, which then pass the seeds out in their feces. It may also be asexually propagated by softwood cuttings. ==Ecology==

This species is one of the preferred hosts of the citrus pest Diaphorina citri, the citrus psyllid, which is the vector for the Citrus greening disease. Diseases M. paniculata is vulnerable to soil nematodes, scales, sooty mold and whiteflies. ==Gallery==

File:Starr_061105-9627_Murraya_paniculata.jpg|Flowers and leaves File:Murraya paniculata line draing.gif|Line drawing showing flowers and fruit File:Murraya paniculata fruits closeup.jpg|Fruits File:Starr_061105-9634_Murraya_paniculata.jpg|Shrubby formation in cultivation File:Feuillage_de_Murraya_paniculata.jpg|Foliage File:Flor-Murraya_manipulata.JPG|Flower detail ==References==