Polyscias mollis

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Family Araliaceae

Taxonomy: Polyscias mollis (Benth.) Harms

Synonyms: 10 (APC 2026-07-30)

Aralia macdowalli F.M.Bailey (taxonomic synonym)
Aralia macdowallii (F.Muell.) F.Muell. ex F.M.Bailey (taxonomic synonym)
Nothopanax molle Seem. (taxonomic synonym)
Panax macdowalli F.Muell. (taxonomic synonym)
Panax macdowallii F.Muell. (taxonomic synonym)
Panax mollis Benth. (nomenclatural synonym)
Panax mollis Seem. (taxonomic synonym)
Polyscias macdowallii (F.Muell.) Domin (taxonomic synonym)
Polyscias molle R.Vig. (orthographic variant)
Tieghemopanax mollis (Benth.) R.Vig. (nomenclatural synonym)

Distribution (APC): Qld

Profiles: APC, Flora of Australia, ALA, iNaturalist, ATRP

Traits

Top source datasets: ATRP_2020 (1), Cooper_2013 (13), Gross_2005 (4), Grubb_1996 (2), Kew_2019_1 (1), Kooyman_2011 (14), Sjostrom_2006 (4), Wells_2012 (95), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), Wright_2000 (1). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 40 traits from 138 records in 11 datasets.

Traits by category (click to expand). For categorical traits, the values are listed. For numerical traits, the mean and range are shown.

flower morphology

sex_type (categorical): dioecious (2) [sources: Gross_2005; Sjostrom_2006]

fruit morphology

fruit_length (numerical): 4.5 mm (4-5 mm) [sources: Cooper_2013]
fruit_width (numerical): 5.5 mm (5-6 mm) [sources: Cooper_2013]
fruit_type (categorical): drupe (3) [sources: Cooper_2013; Gross_2005; Sjostrom_2006]
fruit_fleshiness (categorical): fleshy (4) [sources: Cooper_2013; Gross_2005; Sjostrom_2006; Wells_2012]
fruit_dehiscence (categorical): indehiscent (3) [sources: Cooper_2013; Gross_2005; Sjostrom_2006]

leaf morphology

leaflet_area (numerical): 6232.29 mm2 (3700.52-12541.02 mm2) [sources: Wells_2012]
leaf_length (numerical): 187.5 mm (100-275 mm) [sources: Kooyman_2011]
leaf_width (numerical): 85 mm (50-120 mm) [sources: Kooyman_2011]
leaf_mass_per_area (numerical): 30.48 g/m2 (19.13-50.43 g/m2) [sources: Wells_2012]
leaf_dry_matter_content (numerical): 0.18 g/g (0.11-0.24 g/g) [sources: Wells_2012]
leaf_lobation (categorical): unlobed (1) [sources: Kooyman_2011]
leaf_compoundness (categorical): compound (1) [sources: Kooyman_2011]

life history

plant_growth_form (categorical): shrub (3); tree (5) [sources: ATRP_2020; Cooper_2013; Grubb_1996; Kooyman_2011; Wells_2012; Wenk_2022]
life_history (categorical): perennial (1) [sources: Wenk_2023]
woodiness_detailed (categorical): woody (1) [sources: Wenk_2022]
leaf_phenology (categorical): evergreen (1) [sources: Kooyman_2011]
pollination_syndrome (categorical): bee (1) [sources: Wells_2012]
dispersers (categorical): birds (1) [sources: Wells_2012]
flowering_time (categorical): yyyyynnnnnny (1) [sources: Cooper_2013]

seed morphology

seed_dry_mass (numerical): 1.5 mg (1.5-1.5 mg) [sources: Grubb_1996; Kew_2019_1]
seed_length (numerical): 4.75 mm (4-5 mm) [sources: Cooper_2013; Kooyman_2011]
seed_width (numerical): 2 mm (2-2 mm) [sources: Kooyman_2011]

stem morphology

wood_density (numerical): 0.31 mg/mm3 (0.19-0.45 mg/mm3) [sources: Wells_2012]

whole plant morphology

plant_height (numerical): 8 m (8-8 m) [sources: Cooper_2013; Kooyman_2011]

Sources

dataset_id	n_traits	n_records	reference
Wells_2012	22	95	J. A. Wells. “Phylogeny and inter-relations of ecological traits and seed dispersal in rainforest plants: Exploring aspects of functional diversity in primary and secondary rainforests in Australia's Wet Tropics.”. PhD. University of Queensland, 2012.
Kooyman_2011	10	14	R. Kooyman, M. Rossetto, W. Cornwell, and M. Westoby. “Phylogenetic tests of community assembly across regional to continental scales in tropical and subtropical rain forests”. Global Ecology and Biogeography 20 (2011), pp. 707-716. doi: 10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00641.x.
Cooper_2013	10	13	W. Cooper and W. T. Cooper. Australian rainforest fruits. CSIRO Publishing, 2013, p. 272.
Gross_2005	4	4	C. L. Gross. “A comparison of the sexual systems in the trees from the Australian tropics with other tropical biomes-more monoecy but why?”. American Journal of Botany 92.6 (2005), pp. 907-919. doi: 10.3732/ajb.92.6.907.
Sjostrom_2006	4	4	A. Sjöström and C. L. Gross. “Life-history characters and phylogeny are correlated with extinction risk in the Australian angiosperms”. Journal of Biogeography 33.2 (2006), pp. 271-290. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2005.01393.x.
Grubb_1996	2	2	P. J. Grubb and D. J. Metcalfe. “Adaptation and inertia in the Australian tropical lowland rain-forest flora: Contradictory trends in intergeneric and intrageneric comparisons of seed size in relation to light demand”. Functional Ecology 10 (1996), pp. 512-520. doi: 10.2307/2389944.
Wenk_2022	2	2	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
ATRP_2020	1	1	F. A. Zich, B. P. Hyland, T. Whiffin, and R. A. Kerrigan. Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants, Edition 8. 2020. url: https://apps.lucidcentral.org/rainforest/text/intro/index.html.
Kew_2019_1	1	1	Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Wenk_2023	1	1	E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.
Wright_2000	1	1	I. J. Wright, H. T. Clifford, R. Kidson, M. L. Reed, B. L. Rice, and M. Westoby. “A survey of seed and seedling characters in 1744 Australian dicotyledon species: Cross-species trait correlations and correlated trait-shifts within evolutionary lineages”. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 69 (2000), pp. 521-547. doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2000.tb01222.x.