Raukaua

Raukaua
Raukaua laetevirens
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Apiales
Family:	Araliaceae
Subfamily:	Aralioideae
Genus:	Raukaua Seemann
Type species
Raukaua edgerleyi (J.D. Hooker) Seemann

Raukaua is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araliaceae. It has an austral distribution, being indigenous to southern Argentina and Chile, as well as New Zealand and the island of Tasmania.

Raukaua is a genus of woody plants. They vary in habit: for example R. laetevirens is a small tree, while R. valdiviensis is a liana. Like most of Araliaceae, they have palmately compound leaves. The leaves are heteroblastic, that is, conspicuously different in form from juvenile to adult. R. simplex often produces root suckers and on these, the further the sucker is from the main shoot, the more juvenile the form of the leaves.

The Maoris extracted an aromatic oil from the leaves of R. edgerleyi. The essential oils of the New Zealand species have been the subject of a analysis.

All of the species of Raukaua have been placed in Pseudopanax at one time or another, and sometimes in other genera as well.Molecular phylogenetic comparisons of DNA sequences have shown that Raukaua is closely related to Schefflera sensu strictissimo, Cheirodendron, Motherwellia, and Cephalaralia (not Cephalaria!). It might not be as close to Pseudopanax as was once believed.

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Wikipedia