This would be an outdoor plant here in Hawaii where I saw it at a Japanese nursery (almost no labels on plants, no apparent sales staff), but I'd guess it will be a hit as a houseplant. What's nifty is that the leaves are palmately compound, as normal for Schefflera, but the leaflets are either deeply lobed or pinnately compound, and most all the leaflets are 2- or more lobed. I did find one variegated cultivar with leaves lobed like this, but I think that would have to be a different cultivar. I'm posting this because it's so cute that I'd like to know the cultivar name of what I assume is S. arboricola. Surely, it's coming soon to a nursery near you.
It's much more interesting than the species. They call it 'Maggie' over at Dave's Garden: PlantFiles: Hawaiian Umbrella Tree
Thanks, Junglekeeper. It's curious that that one person's photos are the only ones on the internet. He's in southern California (but no mention if his photos are from there). A U. of Florida Extension page at UF/IFAS Okeechobee Extension Service | 'Trinet' Arboricola mentions that "around 150 different varieties of [Schefflera arboricola] can be found in the tropical regions of Taiwan, New Zealand and South-East Asia", so maybe it's not even a cultivar.
I'm super late to the conversation, but I snagged a cutting of this schefflera out of a dish garden when I worked in a greenhouse 23 years ago. Someone happened to mention the name Maggie to me and this is the first time I have seen something similar.
@Gil Hannan, thanks for the corroboration of the cultivar name, and for attaching the photos! Definitely not too late. :) And welcome to the forums.
Thanks for the photos; there still aren't many for this cultivar. I don't recall ever seeing it at retail. I wonder why that is since it's quite attractive.
Thanks! I only was able to get it because I saw it used as filler in a dish garden that was grown in Canada. The grower had no clue what I was talking about and I never saw another. Even having a name, I still have only found two references with pictures online. I have successfully propagated it before, but it is not easy. I really appreciate the information, thanks!
What does it mean, "united leaf"? The second photo in the thread shows at least one leaf that seems to have leaflets separated on a rachis. Are you saying all Schefflera leaves are united leaves?
Looking more closely at the photos, I see that the leaves are not united, as in two leaves growing like Siamese twins. And, no, Aboricola leaves are compound. Sorry, my mistake.
I'm also super late to this conversation, but this plant was recently shipped to my work. I work in large retail and wholesale nursery and this was sent to us as a schefflera arboricola but no cultivar name was given. It was so unique from all the other scheffleras that I've seen since I've worked here so I tried looking it up but could only find this thread about it. The grower we bought it from is based in California, but I have no idea where they source their cuttings. I hope that we are able to carry this plant more often.
Will you be following up from the grower about the source and the name?? It will help to have a name if you're going to ask for it! And you'll tell us what they're calling it, right? I want to point out that there are two interesting aspects to this plant. One is that the leaflets are lobed. But the other, which is what I based the thread title on, is that some of the leaflets are further divided into leaflets, as seen in the first photo in the previous post, on the left just above the centre.
It's also interesting how inconsistent the leaf shapes are on the plants. One the same cutting there will be ones that are just lobed and ones that are further divided. I'll be asking them if there is a cultivar name for this plant when we put in our next order of plants from this grower and let you know.
So I just talked to the grower and they said that they sell that variety as Pittman's Pride. However, when I tried looking up that name all the information that I could find only mentioned that it was a dwarf, compact variety. It never mentions anything about it's leave shape. So I don't know how much I trust that.
Right, and there are no photos coming up that look like that. Here is one that came up called Schefflera arboricola 'Janine' that is variegated with lobed leaves, possibly even a few compound leaflets - I can't really tell. Dwarf Umbrella Tree (Schefflera arboricola) You'd think suppliers would be excited enough about this to get a name for it so they could promote it.
