Ehretia microphylla is commonly known as the Fukien tea tree or Philippine tea tree, is a species of flowering plant. The genus Ehretia is placed in the family Ehretiaceae.
Ehretia microphylla is a shrub growing to 4 m height, with long, straggling, slender branches. It is deciduous during the dry season. Its leaves are usually 10âÂÂ50 mm long and 5âÂÂ30 mm wide, and may vary in size, texture, colour and margin. It has small white flowers 8âÂÂ10 mm in diameter with a 4âÂÂ5 lobed corolla, and drupes 4âÂÂ6 mm in diameter, ripening brownish orange.
The plant occurs widely in eastern and south-eastern Asia from India, Indochina, southern China, and Japan, through Malesia (including the Australian territory of Christmas Island) and New Guinea to mainland Australia (Cape York Peninsula) and the Solomon Islands. It has become an invasive weed in Hawaii where it is a popular ornamental plant and where the seeds are thought to be spread by fruit-eating birds.
On Cape York Peninsula, the plant is recorded from semi-evergreen vine thickets. On Christmas Island, it favours dry sites on the terraces, and sometimes occurs in rainforest.
The plant is popular in Penjing in China. The leaves are used medicinally in the Philippines to treat cough, colic, diarrhea and dysentery.