Skimmia
Thunb. nom. cons.
Erect shrubs or sometimes creeping low shrubs with adventitious roots or trees,
evergreen, slightly to strongly aromatic; dioecious or monoecious. Stem of 1 to 3 year's age green or blackish, later with pale creamy-grey or yellowish bark, inconspicuously
lenticellate. Leaves alternate, simple, obovate to oblanceolate or narrowly elliptic,
cuneate to rounded at base, acute or rounded or abruptly acuminate to attenuate-caudate at apex, entire or slightly crenulate near apex along margins, chartaceous or
coriaceous, moderately to dark green above, pale to yellowish-green beneath; petioles
green, brownish or reddish. Inflorescences terminal thyrsoid, paniculate cymes, globose
to elongate-oblong or pyramidal, lax or dense, puberulent. Flowers functionally unisexual or bisexual, 4 - 5(-7)-merous, except in number of stamens which is as many as
number of petals. Ovary 2 - 5 carpellate, 2 - 5-lobed, subglobose, vestigial in male
flowars; style stout, shorter or equalling ovary, deciduous or persistent; stigma 2 -
5-lobed. Fruit a fleshy drupe, globose, rarely pyriform, red or black, with 1 - 5, 1-seeded,
leathery, angular endocarps; seeds ovoid, albuminous, testa membranous; cotyledons
rounded to oblong, yellowish-green.
Subtropical and temperate zones of Asia; throughout Himalayas (eastwards from E. Afghanistan through India), Myanmar, China, E. Asiatic Islands, Philippines, N. &. S. Vietnam, Laos and Thailand; 4 species; 3 in India.
Literature. TAYLOR, N.P.(1987) A revision of the genus Skimmia (Rutaceae). Kew Magazine 4(4): 168 - 194.
Subtropical and temperate zones of Asia; throughout Himalayas (eastwards from E. Afghanistan through India), Myanmar, China, E. Asiatic Islands, Philippines, N. &. S. Vietnam, Laos and Thailand; 4 species; 3 in India.
Literature. TAYLOR, N.P.(1987) A revision of the genus Skimmia (Rutaceae). Kew Magazine 4(4): 168 - 194.
KEY TO THE SPECIES
| 1a. Drupe red; erect or creeping low shrubs up to 1.5 m high | 1. Skimmia anquetilia |
| b. Drupe black; small trees or erect shrubs up to 15 m tall or Jow creeping shrubs Jess than 1 m high | 2 |
| 2a. Leaves slightly aromatic when bruised, apex attenuate-caudate, caudex 10 - 15 mm long; petioles green or reddish | 2. Skimmia arborescens |
| b. Leaves strongly aromatic when bruised, apex acute and shortly acuminate, acumen 5 - 10 mm long; petioles green or brownish | 3. Skimmia laureola |
