Florida Pygmypipes (Monotropsis odorata)
Description
Reynoldsia is an obsolete genus of flowering plants in the ivy family, Araliaceae. In 2003, Kew Gardens published a checklist for Araliaceae, in which eight species were recognized for Reynoldsia: four from Samoa, two from Tahiti, one from the Marquesas, and one from Hawaii. In 2010, a phylogenetic comparison of DNA data showed that Reynoldsia was polyphyletic, consisting of two groups that are not each other's closest relatives. In a companion paper, three of the species were "sunk" into synonymy with others, reducing the number of species to five. All species that were formerly in Reynoldsia are now in ''Polyscias'' subgenus Tetraplasandra, a subgenus of 21 species indigenous to Malesia and Pacific islands. Reynoldsia was a genus of shrubs to medium-sized trees, mostly of dry habitats, especially the leeward sides of tropical pacific islands. The leaves are imparipinnate, and alternate. The leaf margin is never completely entire, but varies from obscurely to patently dentate. William R. Philipson considered Reynoldsia to be hard to distinguish from Tetraplasandra, another defunct genus to which it was closely related. In general, Reynoldsia can be recognized by its toothed leaflets, greater number of ovary cells, and smaller number of stamens. Polyscias sandwicensis (formerly Reynoldsia sandwicensis) is cultivated, albeit rarely, in Hawaii. Instructions for its cultivation are available.
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum: Magnoliophyta
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Class: Magnoliopsida
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Order: Ericales
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Family: Ericaceae
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Genus: Monotropsis
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