To illustrate the wide variations in the Croton leaves, specimens of seven different plants are shown in the upper right hand corner of [Plate X] and one more, with spiral leaves, is shown in the lower left hand corner. These eight are perhaps the ones most often seen in Honolulu, but they do not exhaust the local list, and botanical books name many more varieties.
Croton shrubs vary in size, but most of them grow ten or twelve feet tall. Their colors are brightest when growing in full sunlight. Croton leaves remain fresh for some time after they are cut, so that they lend themselves to unusual decorations. The proper name, Codiaeum, may have been derived from the Greek word for head, suggesting that the leaves were used to make crowning wreaths.
The Croton flowers are small and white, growing in slender racemes in the axils of the leaves. There are separate male and female flowers.
ERANTHEMUM
Pseuderanthemum atropurpureum (Bull) Radlkofer
(Erantbemum purpureum)
A shrub which might be casually mistaken for one of the Crotons, because of the rich coloring of its leaves, is called Eranthemum. The leaf colors are, however, purplish, rose and pink, hues that do not occur in the Crotons. These plants vary greatly among themselves, some having leaves that are mottled in green and white, others with colors that range through the pinkish purples to dark maroon. There is a tendency for the young leaves to have the brightest colors and to turn green as they grow older. The leaves are opposite, strongly veined and rather unevenly margined. The plant belongs to the Acanthus family, and is a native of the South Sea islands. ([Plate X], 3)
A variety of the purple is the eldorado, a horticultural variation, as bright and sunny in its green and gold coloring as the former is dark and rich, deserving its name of eldorado, the golden. The pointed leaves are margined and blotched in bright yellow, usually with yellow veins. They grow in opposite pairs and have a tendency to appear in bunches near the ends of the stem. The new leaves are in two tones of yellowish green, the more striking coloration of clear yellow developing as they age. ([Plate X], 4)
There is another Eranthemum, bearing purple and white flowers, illustrated in [plate VI].
PANAX
Polyscias guilfoylei Bailey
(Nothopanax guilfoylei, Cogniaux and Merrill)
Visitors to Hawaii are always interested in knowing the name of the commonest hedge plant, a tall slender shrub with grey perpendicular stems and leaves that usually are edged in white or pale green. This is the Panax, a native of the Pacific Islands and a member of the Aralia family.
This shrub is probably one of the most successful hedge plants in the world, since it has few branches and these tend to grow almost straight upward and the foliage is carried right down to the ground. There are several varieties, differing slightly in the form and coloring of leaflets. Some are a flat green, others are edged in white or yellow, or the reverse. All tend to have irregular toothed margins. The leaves are compound, the leaflets opposite, the stems clasping the branch.