Eumachia forsteriana Seeds | Eumachia
LATIN NAME: Eumachia forsteriana
COMMON NAME: Eumachia
Plant Profile
Eumachia forsteriana is a Pacific island shrub with glossy leaves, clusters of small white flowers and red fruits that birds carry into the forest. It grows in coastal and lowland forest in Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu and American Samoa, usually in the shade of taller trees on volcanic soils, from the shore to about 800 metres. The plant is an evergreen shrub or small tree of two to four metres, with opposite, leathery, elliptic leaves and interpetiolar stipules that persist after the leaf has fallen. The flowers are small and white, held in terminal clusters, and the fruit is a fleshy drupe that turns red to dark purple as it ripens. It is one of the Pacific species that were long left in Psychotria and were moved into Eumachia after molecular work showed that the old genus was a catch-all. It is a quiet plant of the forest understorey rather than a garden showpiece.
Science & Biotechnology
Eumachia forsteriana was described by Asa Gray from Pacific collections and named for the Forsters, the naturalists who sailed with Cook, and it was transferred to Eumachia in 2017 when the genus was expanded to take in a large group of Pacific and Asian species. Eumachia is now a genus of about eighty species, characterised by raphides in the tissue, a woody habit, interpetiolar stipules that turn yellow and break off in fragments, and red or orange drupes with hard pyrenes. The transfer matters because Psychotria, with over a thousand species, was one of the largest and least natural genera of flowering plants, and the new arrangement reflects real relationships rather than convenience. The flowers are distylous in most species of the genus, with long-styled and short-styled individuals, a system that promotes cross-pollination. The fruit is eaten by birds, which disperse the seed through the forest, and the species regenerates in gaps and along paths.
Uses & Benefits
The plant is grown in Pacific island gardens and in tropical collections as a shade-tolerant evergreen shrub, useful for the understorey of a large garden where little else will flower. It is also used in coastal planting and in restoration of island forest, since it tolerates salt wind and poor volcanic soil. The wood is small and soft and has no commercial value, and the fruit is not eaten by people. In local practice the leaves have been used as a poultice, and the plant appears in the materia medica of several island groups, though there is almost no pharmacological work behind those uses. For a gardener in the tropics it is a plant for a shady hedge or a mixed border under trees, and it can be clipped. It is not a plant for a frosty climate, and it has no place in temperate gardens except under glass.
Growing from Seed
Sow fresh seed, cleaned of flesh, in a shaded pot of loam, leafmould and grit at 22 to 28 degrees, covering it lightly; germination takes one to three months. Cuttings of semi-ripe wood root readily in a closed frame in summer, and they are the quicker route to a flowering plant. Grow the seedlings in bright shade and keep them humid, then plant out into shade or dappled light in well-drained, humus-rich soil. Water regularly in the first two years, and mulch with leaf litter. The plant is tender below about five degrees, so in cool climates it needs a heated glasshouse. Prune lightly in spring to shape it, and feed with a balanced fertiliser twice in the growing season. It tolerates coastal wind and salt spray once established.
Our Take
A quiet Pacific understorey shrub with glossy leaves and red drupes, moved out of Psychotria in 2017. Shade, warmth and salt wind.
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