Pittosporum tobira (Thunb.) W.T. Aiton, 1811.

Verloove, Filip, 2021, New records in vascular plants alien to Tenerife (Spain, Canary Islands), Biodiversity Data Journal 9, pp. 62878-62878 : 62878

Pittosporum tobira (Thunb.) W.T. Aiton, 1811.

Pittosporum tobira Hortus Kew. (2nd ed.) 2: 27. 1811.

Distribution

TENERIFE: Tegueste, El Socorro, TF-154 road, as epiphyte on Phoenix , rather numerous individuals in several trees on both sides of the road, 18.01.2019, F. Verloove 13445 (BR). https://observation.org/observation/205286418/

Notes

A native of East Asia, this shrub is frequently cultivated as an ornamental in warm-temperate areas across the world. Its seeds are embedded in a resinous pulp which probably explains why the species is frequently dispersed by berry-eating birds. As a result, Pittosporum tobira is regularly found as an epiphyte on palm trees, just like species of the genera Ficus or Schefflera .

In El Socorro in Tenerife, bird-sown shrubs of this species have been observed for several years on Phoenix trunks.

From the same genus, the Australian shrub Pittosporum undulatum Vent. is an invasive species in Gran Canaria and Tenerife ( Acebes Ginovés et al. 2010), especially in the evergreen laurel forest. However, it is also sometimes observed as an epiphyte on Phoenix , for instance, in Puerto de la Cruz.