Alphitonia is a genus of arborescent flowering plants comprising about 20 species, constituting part of the buckthorn family (Rhamnaceae). They occur in tropical regions of Southeast Asia, Oceania and Polynesia. These are large trees or shrubs. In Australia, they are often called "ash trees" or "sarsaparilla trees". This is rather misleading however; among the flowering plants, Alphitonia is not closely related to the true ash trees (Fraxinus of the asterids), and barely at all to the monocot sarsaparilla vines (Smilax).
The name is derived from Greek álphiton (ἄλφιτον, "barley-meal"), from the mealy quality of their fruits' mesocarps.[2] Another interpretation is that "baked barley meal" alludes to the mealy red covering around the hard cells in the fruit.[3]
The lanceolate coriaceous leaves are alternate, about 12 cm long. The margins are smooth. Venation is pinnate. They have white to rusty complex hairs on the under surface. The petiole is less than a quarter the length of a blade. Stipules are present.
The small flowers form terminal or axillary clusters of small creamy blossoms during spring. The flowers are bisexual. Hypanthium is present. The flowers show 5 sepals, 5 petals and 5 stamens. The ovary is inferior. The fruits are ovoid, blackish non-fleshy capsules, with one seed per locule.
Alphitonia species are used as food plants by the larva the hepialid moth Aenetus mirabilis, which feed only on these trees. They burrow horizontally into the trunk, then vertically down.
^Alphitonia Endl. Archived 2011-03-22 at the Wayback Machine on FloraBase: Flora of Western Australia.
^"Alphitonia ponderosa", Native Plants, Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 2009.
^Alexander Floyd, Rainforest Trees of Mainland South-eastern Australia, Inkata Press 2008, ISBN 978-0-9589436-7-3 page 322
Alphitonia is a genus of arborescent flowering plants comprising about 20 species, constituting part of the buckthorn family (Rhamnaceae). They occur in...
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charcoal for use in gunpowder before the development of modern propellants. Alphitonia ponderosa Ceanothus Ceanothus papillosus var. roweanus at the Regional...
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and South America Other plant species known by the same name include: Alphitonia, known as sarsaparilla in Australia Hardenbergia violacea, known as sarsaparilla...
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campion root and leaves Atriplex root Sapindus fruit Passiflora foetida Alphitonia excelsa Soap pod fruit (various acacias) Mojave yucca root Red quinoa...
the wood due to its availability; kauila (Colubrina oppositifolia or Alphitonia ponderosa), more durable woods when in contact with soil, was rarer. As...
in the Pacific and contains two species that were first described in Alphitonia. It is related to Emmenosperma. The genus name of Jaffrea is in honour...
Paschalococos (possibly the largest palm trees in the world at the time), Alphitonia zizyphoides, and Elaeocarpus rarotongensis. At least six species of land...
trees in the buckthorn family, Rhamnaceae, that are endemic to Hawaiʻi: Alphitonia ponderosa and Colubrina oppositifolia. Their wood was prized for being...
Northern Australia, the exotic B. decumbens competes with the native tree Alphitonia petriei by inhibiting the growth of seedlings, slowing the conversion...
the family Hepialidae. It is known from Queensland. The larvae feed on Alphitonia species. They bore in the stems of trees and saplings. Australian Faunal...
above valleys and near waterfalls. Other plants in the habitat include Alphitonia ponderosa (kauila), Alyxia stellata (maile), Antidesma platyphyllum (hame)...
runners are made from hard native woods, traditionally that of kauila (Alphitonia ponderosa or Colubrina oppositifolia), uhiuhi (Caesalpinia kavaiensis)...
species can be found in the Australia and New Guinea. Larvae feed on Alphitonia excelsa. D. d. danis - Ambon D. d. serapis Miskin, 1891 - Australia: Cairns...
as soap plant or soap creeper), native to Southern Africa. Soapberry Alphitonia excelsa, soap tree Soapweed (disambiguation) "Ceanothus", Plant of the...
forest at high elevations. Other associated trees include species of Alphitonia, Dodonaea, and Psidium at middle elevations, and Myrsine, Coprosma, Cyathea...
hairs on the tip of the abdomen. The larvae bore in the inner bark of Alphitonia excelsa, the injured bark of Eucalyptus species, in branches of Ficus...
South Wales, Australia. The wingspan is about 5 mm. The larvae feed on Alphitonia excelsa. They probably mine the leaves of their host plant. Australian...
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