Melicope polybotrya facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Melicope polybotrya |
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Melicope
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polybotrya
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Melicope polybotrya is a special kind of shrub or small tree. It belongs to the Rutaceae family, which also includes citrus plants like oranges and lemons! This plant is only found in one place in the world: Lord Howe Island. It has leaves made of three parts, and its green flowers grow in small bunches near the leaves.
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What Does Melicope polybotrya Look Like?
Melicope polybotrya can grow as a shrub or a small tree. It usually reaches a height of about 3 to 9 meters (that's like a small building!). Its leaves grow in pairs on opposite sides of the stem. Each leaf is made of three smaller leaflets. These leaflets are shaped like a wide egg, about 7 to 12 centimeters long and 7 to 9 centimeters wide. They sit on a small stalk called a petiolule.
Flowers and Fruit
The flowers of Melicope polybotrya are green. They grow in small clusters called panicles, which are about 2.5 to 5 centimeters long. This plant is dioecious, which means male and female flowers grow on separate plants. The sepals (small leaf-like parts under the petals) are tiny, less than 1 millimeter long. The petals are about 2 to 2.5 millimeters long.
This plant flowers during the summer. After flowering, it produces fruit. The fruit is made of four small sections called follicles. These sections are fused together at the bottom and are about 5 to 6.5 millimeters long. Inside the fruit, you'll find round, black seeds.
How Melicope polybotrya Got Its Name
This plant was first officially described in 1871. Two botanists, Charles Moore and Ferdinand von Mueller, gave it the name Euodia polybotrya. They wrote about it in a book called Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae. The plants they studied were found on Mount Lidgbird.
Later, in 2001, another botanist named Thomas Gordon Hartley changed its name to Melicope polybotrya. The second part of its name, polybotrya, comes from two ancient Greek words. Polys means "many," and botrys means "bunch." This name refers to how the flowers grow in many clusters on the plant.
Where Melicope polybotrya Lives
Melicope polybotrya grows in forests that are protected from strong winds. It is quite common, especially in the lower areas of Lord Howe Island. This plant is endemic to Lord Howe Island, meaning it naturally grows nowhere else in the world!
