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Gardenia

J.Ellis (1761)

This name is accepted

Kingdom: Viridiplantae Phylum: Magnoliophyta Class/Clade: Eudicot-Asterids Order: Gentianales Family: Rubiaceae Genus: Gardenia

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Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Shrubs or trees, young parts often covered with viscid-resinous exudate secreted by the stipules.

Stems:

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite, ternate, or rarely quaternate. Domatia usually present in the axils of the lateral veins. Margins entire. Lateral veins. Stipules conspicuous, intrapetiolar, connate throughout their length into a membranous collar.

Flowers: Flowers solitary, terminal, soon appearing axillary by development of one of the vegetatifve buds lateral to the flower, rarely flowers in corymbs; hypanthium narrowly funnelform, often costate, formed by lower part of calyx and enclosed ovary, apically lined with a shallow nectary disk. Flowers insect-pollinated, bisexual (perfect) or rarely unisexual, often heterostylous. Calyx (upper distinct portion) narrowly funnelform, often produced into terminal spurs (often referred to as calyx lobes), spurs, when present, 4-6, widely spreading from calyx, sometimes exceeded by true apex of calyx. Corolla conspicuous, white, yellow, or orange, salverform, 5-9-lobed, the lobes contorted in bud; nectary disk usually present. Stamens as many as and alternate with the corolla lobes; filaments short, usually inserted on the corolla tube or throat; anthers dithecal, opening by longitudinal slits, dorsifixed above middle, linear-oblong, included or scarcely exserted from corolla at anthesis. Pollen in tetrads. Ovary inferior, occasionally partly so, or very rarely superior, 1-celled or falsely 2-celled, placentas 2-8, parietal; ovules numerous; stigmas connate or 2-lobed, dry or occasionally wet; style 1, terminal, slender.

Fruit: Fruit ovoid; ellipsoid; or subglobose; smooth; costate; or narrowly winged; terminated by somewhat persistent calyx spurs; pericarp hard; exocarp thin; mesocarp fibrous-coriaceous; endocarp bony; cavity filled with usually orange; yellow; or cream pulp. Seeds numerous; horizontally embedded in pulp; compressed; with well-developed oily endosperm; or endosperm occasionally scanty or absent.

Ploidy:

Habitat:

Elevation Range:

Historical Distribution

Images

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Uses and Culture

USES

  • Wood used for kapa anvils (kua kuku) (Abbott 1992:50). Fruit pulp used to make yellow kapa dye (Lamb 1981:134–135). In the Ethnology Collection at Bishop Museum there is a post-contact example of the wood made into a bowl.

  • Yellow dye from fruit.

PROPAGATION/CULTIVATION

  • Easy. Seeds from ripe fruit soaked 1 hour in water, viable seeds sink. Bury seeds 5 mm deep in vermiculite, germinate in 2 weeks, transfer to individual pots 1 week after seedcoats shed, when leaves appear begin watering with dilute fertilizer, plantout when 20-30 cm with partial shade (Culliney and Koebele 199:121–123).

Natural History

Island Status

Dispersal Agents


Pollinators

Bibliography

Name Published In: Philos. Trans. 51(2): 935 (1761)

Occurrences

SNo. Scientific Name Scientific Name Authorship Locality Habitat Basis of Record Recorded By Record Number Island Source Date
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