Araliaceae in the context of "Panax ginseng"

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⭐ Core Definition: Araliaceae

The Araliaceae are a family of flowering plants composed of about 43 genera and around 1500 species consisting of primarily woody plants and some herbaceous plants commonly called the ivy or ginseng family. The morphology of Araliaceae varies widely, but it is predominantly distinguishable based on its woody habit, tropical distribution, and the presence of simple umbels.

There are numerous plants of economic importance. Some genera, such as Hedera (the ivies), Fatsia (Japanese aralias) and Heptapleurum (formerly Schefflera, the umbrella trees), are used as ornamental foliage plants. The family also includes Panax ginseng, the root of which is ginseng, used in traditional Chinese medicine.

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Araliaceae in the context of Ivy

Hedera, commonly called ivy (plural ivies), is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to Western Europe, Central Europe, Southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern Africa and across central-southern Asia east to Japan and Taiwan. Several species are cultivated as climbing ornamentals, and the name ivy especially denotes common ivy (Hedera helix), known in North America as "English ivy", which is frequently planted to clothe brick walls.

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Araliaceae in the context of Umbel

In botany, an umbel is an inflorescence that consists of a number of short flower stalks (called pedicels) that spread from a common point, somewhat like umbrella ribs. The word was coined in botanical usage in the 1590s, from Latin umbella "parasol, sunshade". The arrangement can vary from being flat-topped to almost spherical. Umbels can be simple or compound. The secondary umbels of compound umbels are known as umbellules or umbellets. A small umbel is called an umbellule. The arrangement of the inflorescence in umbels is referred to as umbellate, or occasionally subumbellate (almost umbellate).

Umbels are a characteristic of plants such as carrot, parsley, dill, and fennel in the family Apiaceae; ivy, Aralia and Fatsia in the family Araliaceae; and onion (Allium) in the family Alliaceae.

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Araliaceae in the context of Diplopanax

Diplopanax is a genus of flowering trees placed in the family Cornaceae or Nyssaceae. Its two known extant species inhabit the wet tropical mountains of Vietnam and southern China. They are broad-leaved evergreen trees with woody fruits and white or yellow flowers.

Diplopanax was originally described from only one species, D. stachyanthus, and placed in the family Araliaceae, but this species was later discovered to be congeneric with Mastixicarpum, a genus of flowering plants known only from fossils and assumed extinct since the Pliocene. (This makes Mastixicarpum an example of a Lazarus genus.) One additional species (D. vietnamensis) was subsequently found and described.

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Araliaceae in the context of Raukaua

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.

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