Koelreuteria elegans (Seem.) A.C.Sm., Sapindaceae

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Present on Pacific Islands?  yes

Threat only at high elevations?  no

Risk assessment results:  Evaluate, score: 6 (Go to the risk assessment)

Common name(s): [more details]

English: Chinese rain tree, flame gold, golden rain tree

Fijian: lombolombo, manawi, tatange, towiwi, wiri, wiwi

Habit:  tree

Description:  "Tree 7-25 m in height, to ca. 50 cm (2 m recorded in Taiwan) in diameter; lenticels round to lens-shaped, pustulate, corky, cinnamon-brown; bark peeling in square plates, rough, somewhat corky, furrowed lengthwise. Leaves bipinnate, the odd terminal leaflet absent or much reduced, 25-60 cm long, 15-44 cm wide; rachis glabrous or short-hairy on the more or less grooved upper side; leaflets 8-17 on the major leaf divisions, strongly oblique, smooth and lustrous with barely manifest veins above, lanceolate to narrowly ovate to elliptic, 5.5-9.2 (-10.2) cm long, 1.3-3 (-4.2) cm wide, entire to irregularly crenate-serrate, long-acuminate to caudate at the thip, glabrous or with scattered straight hairs on the veins above and on petiolule, midvein beneath sparsely hairy with tufts of hairs in the axils and often with glands interspersed on the mid-vein and veinlets, sessile or with petiolules to ca 3 mm long. Inflorescence 30-50 cm long, 20-25 cm wide, densely puberulent and glandular, especially at anthesis, less so in fruit; flowers mildly sweet-fragrant; calyx lobes ciliate-glandular; pedicels scattered-puberulent or glabrous; petals usually 5 or 4, rarely 6, limb 5.5-7 mm long, 1.5-3.5 mm wide, acute or obtuse to rounded, appendages lobulate-undulate, claw 2-5 mm long, densely villous; stamens densely villous near base, 4.5-10.1 mm long. Capsules ellipsoidal, the valves rotund to suborbicular (placenta continuous and nonwinged), 3.4-5 (-6) cm long, (2.5-) 3.1-4.6 cm wide, inner side lustrous, reticulate-veined, scattered-pubescent when young, becoming glabrous, deep rose-purple while young, brownish at maturity; styles (1.5-) 2-6 mm long, seeds pyriform to nearly spherical, 5.2-5.5 mm in diameter, black, slightly rugose or smooth." (Meyer, 1976; pp. 156-164).

Habitat/ecology:  In Fiji, "occurs at elevations of 50-825 m in dense or open forest or on its edges, in dry secondary forest, in wooded gullies, and on dry hillsides, as an often spreading tree 4-25 m high" (Smith, 1985; pp. 612-613). Tolerates a range of soil types (Csurhes & Edwards, 1998; p. 114).

Propagation:  Seed (Csurhes & Edwards, 1998; p. 114).

Native range:  Taiwan, Fiji

Presence:

Pacific
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Fiji Fiji Islands	Vanua Levu Island	native	Smith, Albert C. (1985) (pp. 612-613) Vouchers cited: Berry 24, Smith 6429, DA 14327
Fiji Fiji Islands	Viti Levu Island	native	Smith, Albert C. (1985) (pp. 612-613) Vouchers cited: Greenwood 450, DA 14778, DA 2359, DA 14725, Parks 20795, Gillespie 4181, Vaughan 3437, DF 1185, DF 1171, DF 1191, H.B.R. Parham 283a/b, H.B.R. Parham 301, W.L. Parham 4, Degener 15435, DA 1213
Guam Guam Island	Guam Island	introduced invasive	Fosberg, F. R./Falanruw, M. V. C. (1980) (p. 206) Koelreuteria formosana Hayata (Koelreuteria elegans ssp. formosana (Hayata) Meyer); voucher cited Fosberg 58342 (US)
State of Hawaii Hawaiian Islands	Hawaiian Islands	introduced cultivated	Staples, George W./Herbst, Derral/Imada, Clyde T. (2000) (p. 29)
State of Hawaii Hawaiian Islands	Maui Island	introduced invasive	Oppenheimer, Hank L. (2003) (p. 25) Subsp. formosana (Hayata) F.G. Mey. West Maui. Voucher cited: Oppenheimer H10141 (BISH, PTBG)
Japan (offshore islands) Bonin (Ogasawara) Islands	Bonin (Ogasawara) Islands	introduced	Kato, Hidetoshi (2007) As Koelreuteria henryi Dummer [Koelreuteria elegans (Seem.) A.C.Sm. subsp. formosana (Hayata) F.G.Mey.]

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Australia Australia (continental)	Queensland	introduced invasive cultivated	Csurhes, S./Edwards, R. (1998) (p. 114)
Taiwan Taiwan	Taiwan Island	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007)

Also reported from
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
United States (continental except west coast) United States (other states)	USA (Florida)	introduced	U.S. Dept. Agr., Nat. Res. Cons. Serv. (2005)

Comments:  "Listed by the Brisbane City Council as a weed of bushland around Brisbane" (Csurhes & Edwards, 1998; p. 114). "In Florida it has escaped from cultivation in certain areas" (Meyer, 1976; pp. 156-164).

Additional information:  Additional online information about Koelreuteria elegans is available from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR).

Taxonomic information about Koelreuteria elegans may be available from the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

References:

Csurhes, S./Edwards, R. 1998. Potential environmental weeds in Australia: Candidate species for preventative control. Canberra, Australia. Biodiversity Group, Environment Australia. 208 pp.

Fosberg, F. R./Falanruw, M. V. C. 1980. Noteworthy Micronesian plants 4. Micronesica 16(2):201-210.

Kato, Hidetoshi. 2007. Herbarium records of Makino Herbarium, Tokyo Metropolitan University. Personal communication.

Meyer, F. G. 1976. A revision of the genus Koelreuteria (Sapindaceae). J. Arnold Arbor. 57(2): 156-164.

Oppenheimer, Hank L. 2003. New plant records from Maui and Hawai‘i Counties. In: Evenhuis, Neal L. and Eldredge, Lucius G., eds. Records of the Hawaii Biological Survey for 2001-2002. Part 1: Articles. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers. 73:3-30.

Smith, Albert C. 1985. Flora Vitiensis nova: a new flora of Fiji. National Tropical Botanical Garden, Lawai, Kauai, Hawaii. Volume 3. 758 pp.

Staples, George W./Herbst, Derral/Imada, Clyde T. 2000. Survey of invasive or potentially invasive cultivated plants in Hawai‘i. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers No. 65. 35 pp.

U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. 2007. National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Online searchable database.

U.S. Dept. Agr., Nat. Res. Cons. Serv. 2005. The PLANTS Database, Version 3.5 (http://plants.usda.gov). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.