Murraya

Life-forms

Classification System: APG IV

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Plantae
Cladus: Angiosperms
Cladus: Eudicots
Cladus: Core eudicots
Cladus: Rosids
Cladus: Eurosids II
Ordo: Sapindales

Familia: Rutaceae
Subfamilia: Aurantioideae
Tribus: Aurantieae
Subtribus: Merrilliinae
Genus: Murraya
Species: M. alata – M. alternans – M. crenulata – M. euchrestifolia – M. koenigii – M. kwangsiensis – M. microphylla – M. paniculata – M. tetramera
Name

Murraya J.Koenig ex L. (1771)

Type species: M. exotica L.

Synonyms

Heterotypic
Bergera J.Koenig ex L. Mant. 2: 555, 563. Oct 1771.
Type species: B. koenigii L.
Camunium Adans., Fam. 2: 166. 1763.
Type species: C. paniculata L.
Chalcas L., Syst. Nat. ed. 12. 2: 293. 1767, nom. illeg.
Type species: C. paniculata L.

References

'eFloras 2008. Murraya in Flora of China. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
Linnaeus, C. 1771: Mant. 2: 554, 563.

Murraya is a genus of flowering plants in the citrus family, Rutaceae. It is distributed in Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands.[2] The center of diversity is in southern China and Southeast Asia.[3] When broadly circumscribed, the genus has about 17 species. A narrower circumscription contains only eight species, others being placed in Bergera and Merrillia.

Description

Plants in the genus Murraya are shrubs or trees with pinnate leaves arranged alternately, usually glandular, aromatic, and leathery to membranous in texture. The leaflets vary in shape and have smooth or toothed edges.[4] The inflorescence is a panicle, cyme, or small raceme of flowers growing at the ends of branches or in the leaf axils;[2] some flowers are solitary.[4] The fragrant flowers have 4 or 5 sepals and white petals and up to 10 straight stamens.[2][4] The fruit is a fleshy berry with pulp but without the juice vesicles present in some related fruits.[2] It is up to 1.3 centimeters long and orange, red, or black.[4]

Taxonomy

The genus Murraya was first formally described in 1771 by Carl Linnaeus in Mantissa Plantarum Altera from an unpublished description by Johann Gerhard König.[5][6] The genus name commemorates the 18th-century German-Swedish herbal doctor Johan Andreas Murray, a student of Linnaeus.[7] In 1986, Paul P.-H. But and co-authors separated off some species of Murraya as M. sect. Bergera based on chemical evidence.[8] Evidence from pollen morphology and multiple molecular phylogenetic studies showed that when broadly circumscribed, Murraya was not monophyletic, and treating M. sect. Bergera as the separate genus Bergera has widespread support.[9][10][11][12]

Murraya is in the subfamily Aurantioideae, which also includes the genus Citrus.[11] It is in the tribe Clauseninae.[10]
Species list

Studies have repeatedly shown that two sections into which Murraya has been divided, M. sect. Murraya and M. sect. Bergera, should be treated as separate genera. Murraya sensu stricto was revised in 2021, with eight species being accepted:[12]

Murraya alata Drake – China Southeast, Hainan, Vietnam
Murraya elongata A.DC. ex Hook.f. – Myanmar
Murraya glenieii Thwaites ex Oliv. – Sri Lanka
Murraya lucida (G.Forst.) Mabb. – Vanuatu
Murraya omphalocarpa Hayata
Murraya paniculata (L.) Jack – Tropical Asia to Vanuatu and Australia
Murraya sumatrana Roxb.
Murraya zollingeri (Tanaka) F.J.Mou

Species that have been placed in Murraya sect. Bergera belong in Bergera, although as of September 2021, names for many have not been published. Further species still accepted in Murraya by Plants of the World Online are:[13]

Murraya caloxylon Ridl. – Malayasia, Thailand; synonym of Merrillia caloxylon
Murraya crenulata (Turcz.) Oliv. – Taiwan (Lan Yü) to Malesia and SW. Pacific; placed in M. sect. Bergera[14]
Murraya cyclopensis Astuti & Rugayah – W. New Guinea
Murraya euchrestifolia Hayata – China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Taiwan; placed in M. sect. Bergera[14]
Murraya exotica L. – China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Taiwan
Murraya glabra (Guillaumin) Swingle – Vietnam
Murraya heptaphylla Span. – Lesser Sunda Islands (Timor)
Murraya koenigii (L.) Spreng. – Indian Subcontinent to China (S. Yunnan, Guangdong) and Indo-China, S. Hainan; synonym of Bergera koenigii
Murraya kwangsiensis (C.C.Huang) C.C.Huang – China (SE. Yunnan, W. & SW. Guangxi); placed in M. sect. Bergera[9]
Murraya macrophylla (C.C.Huang) F.J.Mou & D.X.Zhang – China
Murraya microphylla (Merr. & Chun) Swingle – China (Guangdong), Hainan; placed in M. sect. Bergera[9]
Murraya tetramera C.C.Huang – China (SE. Yunnan, W. Guangxi); placed in M. sect. Bergera[9]

Uses

Murraya species are used in landscaping.[3] Some species can be grafted onto citrus rootstocks.[15] Species have been used in traditional medicine, with various parts of the plants used to treat fever, pain, and dysentery. M. paniculata has been used to induce labor.[3] It has been used in Cuba for painful inflammatory conditions.[16]

Chemistry

Compounds isolated from Murraya include many types of coumarins and alkaloids. The novel alkaloid yuehchukene was found in M. paniculata, and it has since been isolated from other Murraya. It is found in red-fruited species with larger petals, but not in black-fruited species with smaller petals. Some species also contain the carbazole girinimbine.[3]
Spelling competition

In July 2021, 14-year old Zaila Avant-garde of Harvey, Louisiana, won the final of the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee by correctly spelling the word "murraya", and was the first African American to win the 96-year-old event.[17]
References

"Murraya". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
Murraya. Flora of China.
But, P. P., et al. (1986). A chemotaxonomic study of Murraya (Rutaceae) in China. Acta Phytotax. Sin 24(3), 186-92.
Murraya. FloraBase. Western Australian Herbarium.
"Murraya". APNI. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
von Linné, Carl (1771). Mantissa Plantarum Altera. Holmiæ: Impensis Direct. Laurentii Salvii. pp. 554–555. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
Missouri Botanical Garden
But, Paul Pui-Hay; Kong, Yun-Cheng, Ng Kam-Hung, Chang Hung-Ta, Li Qian, Yu Si-Xao, Waterman Peter G.; Ng, Kam-Hung; Chang, Hung-Ta; Li, Qian; Yu, Si-Xao & Waterman, Peter G. (1986). "A Chemotaxonomic Study of Murraya (Rutaceae) in China". Journal of Systematics and Evolution (in Chinese and English). 24 (3): 186–192. Retrieved 2021-09-21.
Mou, Feng-Juan & Zhang, Dian-Xiang (2009). "Pollen morphology supports the reinstatement of Bergera (Rutaceae)". Nordic Journal of Botany. 27 (4): 298–304. doi:10.1111/j.1756-1051.2009.00369.x.
Mou, Fengjuan; Tu, Tieyao; Chen, Yi-Zhang; Zhang, Dianxiang & Zhang, Dianxiang (2017). "Phylogenetic relationship of Clauseneae (Rutaceae) inferred from plastid and nuclear DNA data and taxonomic implication for some major taxa". Nordic Journal of Botany. 36 (3): 1–12. doi:10.1111/njb.01552.
Appelhans, Marc S.; Bayly, Michael J.; Heslewood, Margaret M.; Groppo, Milton; Verboom, G. Anthony; Forster, Paul I.; Kallunki, Jacquelyn A. & Duretto, Marco F. (2021). "A new subfamily classification of the Citrus family (Rutaceae) based on six nuclear and plastid markers". Taxon. 70 (5): 1035–1061. doi:10.1002/tax.12543. S2CID 237693195.
Mou, Feng-Juan; Peng, Yun; Li, Yi-Guo & Hu, Xiu (2021). "Taxonomic revision of Murraya J. Koenig (Rutaceae) based on the molecular phylogeny and morphological characters". Taiwania. 66 (3): 387–397. doi:10.6165/tai.2021.66.387.
"Murraya". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
Zhang, Dianxiang & Hartley, Thomas G. "Murraya". In Wu, Zhengyi; Raven, Peter H. & Hong, Deyuan (eds.). Flora of China (online). eFloras.org. Retrieved 2021-09-21.
Swingle, W. T., rev. P. C. Reece. Chapter 3: The Botany of Citrus and its Wild Relatives. Archived 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine In: The Citrus Industry vol. 1. Webber, H. J. (ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. 1967.
Casado Martín, C. M., et al. (2011). Acercamiento al género Murraya (Rutaceae) ya la especie Murraya paniculata (L.) Jack. Revista Cubana de Plantas Medicinales 16(4), 408-18. (Spanish)
Ross, Janell (8 July 2021). "Zaila Avant-garde Knows the Troubling History Behind Her Historic Spelling Bee Win". Time Magazine. TIME USA. Retrieved 18 November 2021.