Coccothrinax yunquensis

Coccothrinax yunquensis
Coccothrinax yunquensis
Systematics
Monocots Commelinids Order : Palm- like arecales Family : Palm family (Arecaceae) Genre : Coccothrinax Type : Coccothrinax yunquensis
Scientific name
Coccothrinax yunquensis
Borhidi & O. Muñiz

Coccothrinax yunquensis is a palm species endemic to Cuba .

features

Coccothrinax yunqensis forms a solitary trunk up to 10 m high. It is very similar to Coccothrinax salvatoris . The leaves are fan-shaped . The central leaf leaflets are 40 to 50 cm long and 4.5 cm wide. The glandular spots on the underside of the leaves are small and dark. The fibers of the leaf sheaths are 3 to 4 mm wide. The tips of the free vaginal fibers are pointed. The partial inflorescences are smaller than in C. salvatoris . The flower stalks are up to 1 mm long. There are 6 to 7 stamens . Their filaments are fused to the base of the flower and form a dome. The fruits are unknown.

distribution

Coccothrinax yunquensis is only known from Mount El Yunque in Cuba, a few kilometers from the coastal city of Baracoa in southern Cuba ( Guantánamo province ).

Here the species grows in the steep upper areas of the mountain in the rainforest at around 500 m above sea level. The subsoil consists of coral limestone. Due to the porosity of the rock, the locations are relatively dry, despite the abundant rain. The constant wind limits the height of the vegetation further. The palm trees grow here in the most exposed rocky places. Accompanying species in the area are Melastomataceae , numerous bromeliads and tillandsias , creeping Selenicereus .

Taxonomy

Coccothrinax yunquensis was 1981 by Attila L. Borhidi and Onaney Muñiz Gutiérrez in Acta Botanica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae , 27, 1981, p 447 firstdescribed . The strong similarity to C. salvatoris is already mentioned in the first description . In a 1991 cladistic study of the genus, Nauman and Sanders concluded that these two species are very, very similar. In 1995 Henderson and colleagues put the species as a synonym for C. salvatoris in their Field guide to the palms of the Americas .

However, the species is still considered to be independent in the following publications: R. Govaerts: World Checklist of Seed Plants 3 (1, 2a & 2b) (1999), R. Govaerts and J. Dransfield: World Checklist of Palms (2005), P. Acevedo-Rodríguez and MT Strong: Catalog of seed plants of the West Indies (2012), and in the database World Checklist of Selected Plant Families .

supporting documents

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Carlo Morici (1996): Coccothrinax yunquensis in: Principes , 40 (4), 1996, pp. 204–207 (PDF; 2.5 MB)
2. ↑ Clifton E. Nauman, Roger W. Sanders: Preliminary classification studies in Coccothrinax (Palmae: Coryphoideae) . Selbyana, Vol. 12, 1991, pp. 91-101. ( JSTOR pdf )
3. ↑ Andrew Henderson, Gloria Galeano, Rodrigo Bernal: Field Guide to the Palms of the Americas . Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 1995. ISBN 0-691-08537-4 .
4. ↑ all information from: "Coccothrinax yunquensis" - Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families . Retrieved May 24, 2015.