Latania
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Latania is a genus of plants in the palm family (Arecaceae). The three or so species occur only on the Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean.
description
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Vegetative characteristics
Latania species are moderately large, single-stemmed, tree-shaped fan palms . They are mostly unarmed. The trunk is erect, rough and has elliptical leaf scars. The leaves are costapalmat, induplicate folded (V-shaped). In young palms the dead leaves stay on the plant (marzescence), in older specimens with a well-developed trunk the leaves fall off and leave a clean scar.
Generative characteristics
Latania species are dioecious separate sexes ( diocesan ) and bloom several times. Latania differs from the closely related genera by the following combination of characteristics: The male flowers are single or in coils of two to six. The bracts of the male inflorescences are fused at the edges. The rudiment stamp is columnar and clearly formed.
The stone core is not hairy, thin, furrowed and sculptured. The seed is not furrowed.
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 28.
Distribution and locations
The genus occurs only on the Mascarene . In the past, the palm trees were common and grew on the coastal rocks, in the savannas and canyons. They are almost extinct in their natural habitat, but are widely cultivated in botanical gardens, where the species often hybridize.
Systematics
The genus Latania Comm. ex Juss. is placed within the family Arecaceae in the subfamily Coryphoideae , Tribus Borasseae and Subtribus Lataniinae. The genus is monophyletic . Her sister group is the group from the genera Lodoicea , Borassus and Borassodendron .
In the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew , the following three types are recognized:
- Latania loddigesii Mart. : It occurs only on the island of Mauritius .
- Latania lontaroides (Gaertn.) HEMoore : This endemic to only occurs on Réunion .
- Latania verschaffeltii Lem. : This endemic comes only on the island of Rodrigues
Type species is Latania borbonica Lam. , whose valid name is Latania lontaroides (Gaertn.) HEMoore .
The generic name Latania is a Latinization of the word latanier , which is used in French as a common name for various palm species and is first documented in the spelling Lattanier in 1645 in a book about the West Indies (Guillaume de Coppier: Histoire et Voyage des Indes occidentales et Autres pays éloignés ) is; etymologically it can possibly be traced back to the name of a palm species ( alattani , alátani ) in an indigenous language of the Caribbean. Another hypothesis connects the word with the Malay lontar for palm.
literature
- John Dransfield, Natalie W. Uhl, Conny B. Asmussen, William J. Baker, Madeline M. Harley, Carl E. Lewis: Genera Palmarum. The Evolution and Classification of Palms. Second edition, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2008, ISBN 978-1-84246-182-2 , pp. 320ff.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rafaël Govaerts (ed.): Latania. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved May 4, 2018.
- ↑ Annegret Bollée: Dictionnaire étymologique des créoles français de l'Océan India . 2nd part, Mots d'origine non-française or inconnue. Helmut Buske Verlag, Hamburg 1993, ISBN 978-3-87548-286-7 , p. 253-254 .
- ↑ Helmut Genaust: Etymological dictionary of botanical plant names. 3rd, completely revised and expanded edition. Birkhäuser, Basel / Boston / Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-7643-2390-6 , p. 329.
Web links
- Latania on the homepage of the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden