Fukien tea tree (Ehretia microphylla)

Serut pagar or hokiantie or Philippine tea tree or Fukien tea tree (Ehretia microphylla) is a plant species in the Boraginaceae, a shrub that grows up to 4 meters high, woody stems with long, drooping and slender branches.

E. microphylla usually has leaves 10-50 mm long, 5-30 mm wide and can vary in size, texture, color and margins. The small flowers are white, 8-10 mm in diameter and the corolla has 4-5 lobes. The fruit contains seeds, 4-6 mm in diameter and ripens orange-brown.

Seeds are dispersed by fruit-eating birds. It grows in clumps and semi-evergreen vines, prefers dry sites and occasionally occurs in rainforests. The leaves are used to treat coughs, colic, diarrhea and dysentery.

TAXON

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Boraginales
Family: Boraginaceae
Subfamily: Ehretioideae
Genus: Ehretia P.Browne in Civ. Nat. Hist. Jamaica: 168 (1756)
Species: Ehretia microphylla Lam. in Tabl. Encycl. 1: 425 (1792)

HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS

Carmona microphylla (Lam.) G.Don in Gen. Hist. 4: 391 (1837)
Ehretia buxifolia var. microphylla (Lam.) DC. in Prodr. 9: 509 (1845), nom. superfl.

HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS

Carmona heterophylla Cav. in Icon. 5: 22 (1799)
Carmona retusa (Vahl) Masam. in Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Formosa 30: 61 (1940)
Cordia coromandeliana Retz. ex A.DC. in A.P.de Candolle, Prodr. 9: 509 (1845)
Cordia retusa Vahl in Symb. Bot. 2: 42 (1791)
Ehretia buxifolia Roxb. in Pl. Coromandel 1: 42 (1796)
Ehretia buxifolia var. heterophylla (Cav.) Gagnep. in H.Lecomte (ed.), Fl. Indo-Chine 4(2): 207 (1914)
Ehretia coromandeliana Retz. ex DC. in Prodr. 9: 509 (1845)
Ehretia dentata Courchet ex Gagnep. in Notul. Syst. (Paris) 3: 35 (1914)
Ehretia heterophylla Spreng. in Syst. Veg., ed. 16. 1: 648 (1824)
Ehretia monopyrena Gottschling & Hilger in Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 123: 263 (2001)
Lithothamnus buxioides Zipp. ex Span. in Linnaea 15: 334 (1841)

PUBLICATIONS

Govaerts, R. (2001). World Checklist of Seed Plants Database in ACCESS Genera starting with letter E-F: 1-50919.

Whistler, W.A. (2022). Flora of Samoa Flowering Plants: 1-930. National Tropical Botanicl Garden. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

VERNACULAR NAME

Chinese (simplified): 基及树 - 小叶厚壳树
Chinese (traditional): 滿福木 - 福建茶 - 福建茶 - 基及樹 - 小葉厚殼樹
English: Fukien tea tree, Philippine tea tree
Indonesian: Serut pagar, Hokianti, Hokiantie, Teh fukian, Teh pagar
Thai: ชาฮกเกี้ยน

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