The Plant Press

From The Plant Press, Vol. 24, No. 3, July 2021.

Specimen spotlight

Murraya paniculata (Rutaceae)

M-U-R-R-A-Y-A. That's how you spell, Murraya, a genus of flowering plants in Rutaceae, the citrus family. It is also the winning word that earned 14-year-old Zaila Avante-garde the Scripps National Spelling Bee championship in July 2021. She is the first Black-American to win the 96-year-old event, and she hails from Harvey, Louisiana.

Murraya plant species are native to Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. Orange jasmine (Murraya paniculata) attracts bees with its small, fragrant flowers and attracts small frugivorous birds with its oval, orange-red berries. The U.S. National Herbarium houses 70 pressed specimens of M. paniculata, including one collected in southeast China in 1925, coincidentally the same year as the first Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The Department of Botany extends its congratulations to Zaila on her botanically inspired win!