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Alangium

Genus of flowering plants

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
3 min read
Source updated April 27, 2026
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Alangium is a small genus of flowering plants. The genus is included either in a broad view of the dogwood family Cornaceae, or as the sole member of its own family Alangiaceae. Alangium has about 40 species, but some of the species boundaries are not entirely clear. The type species for Alangium is Alangium decapetalum, which is now treated as a subspecies of Alangium salviifolium. All of the species are shrubs or small trees, except the liana Alangium kwangsiense. A. chinense, A. platanifolium, and A. salviifolium are known in cultivation.

01Description

The genus consists of small trees, shrubs and lianas; a few species have spines. Leaves are undivided or lobed, arranged alternately on the twigs, possess a petiole (leaf stem), are without stipules, have domatia and are usually asymmetric. The inflorescences are cymes produced in the leaf axils. The flowers are symmetrical in form, and have both male and female reproductive organs. They have 4-10 petals and sepals and have 4-40 stamens; the style has two to four lobes and the ovary has one or sometimes two locules. The fruit is a drupe with one or two seeds.

Alangium salviifolium
Alangium salviifolium

02Range

It is native to western Africa, Madagascar, southern and eastern Asia (China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines), tropical Australia, the western Pacific Ocean islands, and New Caledonia. Most of the species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of east and southeast Asia. Five of the species extend well outside of this area. Alangium platanifolium extends from east Asia into Russia. Alangium chinense extends from southeast Asia to Africa. Alangium salviifolium is the most widespread species, ranging from Africa to Australia, Fiji, and New Caledonia. Alangium villosum occurs from southeast Asia to Australia and the western Pacific islands. Alangium grisolleoides is endemic to Madagascar and gives the genus a disjunct distribution.

Alangium species are used as food plants by the larvae of some moth species in the Geometroidea-Drepanoidea assemblage including engrailed (Geometridae) and the subfamily Cyclidiinae (Drepanidae).

03Etymology

The name Alangium is a Latinization, derived from the Malayalam name alangi, which, in Kerala, refers to Alangium salviifolium. It was named in 1783 by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in his Encyclopédie Méthodique.

04Paleontological record

The wood, fruit, and pollen of Alangium are distinctive. Fossils of Alangium have been recognized from the early Eocene of England and the middle Eocene of western North America. In former times, Alangium was far more widespread than it is today.

05Species

As of April 2026, Plants of the World Online accepts the following 57 species:

06Taxonomy

In 2011, a phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequences showed that Alangium is sister to Cornus. Since 1939, Alangium has been divided into four sections: Conostigma, Rhytidandra, Marlea, and Alangium. Some authors have raised Marlea and Rhytidandra to generic rank. The intergeneric classification of Alangium will require a few changes.

07Traditional uses

One species, Alangium chinense (Chinese: 八角枫; pinyin: bā jiǎo fēng), is considered one of the fifty fundamental herbs in traditional Chinese medicine.

Watch videos about AlangiumExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Alangium”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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