Birdlime tree

Description

Ceodes umbellifera, synonym Pisonia umbellifera, commonly known as the birdlime tree or bird catcher tree, is a species of plant in the Nyctaginaceae family. The evergreen shrub has soft wood, small pink or yellow flowers, and produces cavate brown fruit throughout the period March to April. The species has been categorized under different genera in its documented lifetime, being reallocated between Pisonia and Ceodes. Its former genus, Pisonia, is named after a Dutch scientist, Willem Piso, and umbellifera is derived from Latin umbelliferum, denoting the species' big, 'shade-carrying' foliage. The tree's fruit often trap insects, small mammals and birds. This is because the sticky sap of the fruit sticks to the skin, fur or feathers of the animal and renders it immovable. As such, ensnared creatures will often die from starvation or be unable to defend themselves from natural predators. It grows throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific. It is native to the Andaman Islands, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Hawaii, Africa and Madagascar and the states of New South Wales and Queensland in Australia. A variegated form is widely cultivated in frost-free climates. Historically, the shrub has some remedial herbal use in indigenous Hawaiian and Chinese culture. Due to this, it has been the subject of limited scientific study examining its medicinal properties. Ceodes umbellifera is a shrub with large, medium green leaves. Other variegated varieties exist (Ceodes umbellifera 'Variegata') with marbling of white, light and dark green on the shrub's leaves. The tree's elliptic to ovate leaves may be between 6 and 20 cm long, and 4 to 10 cm wide. They are hairless and glossy with a papery texture. Each leaf has between 8 and 10 light lateral veins on each side, ‘without distinctly contrasting dark veins’. The petiole of each leaf is thick, between 0.5 and 5 cm long, and sometimes exstipulate. There are discrepancies between sources regarding the height of the shrub. Most state that Ceodes umbellifera will grow to between 4 and 12 metres. Some sources suggest the tallest known specimen is 20 metres tall, whilst another reports a height of 28 metres. Once mature, the tree has a spreading, rounded crown which may cover over 20 feet.