Neonicholsonia watsonii

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Neonicholsonia watsonii
Neonicholsonia watsonii.jpg

Neonicholsonia watsonii

Systematics
Monocots
Commelinids
Order : Palm- like arecales
Family : Palm family (Arecaceae)
Genre : Neonicholsonia
Type : Neonicholsonia watsonii
Scientific name of the  genus
Neonicholsonia
Dammer
Scientific name of the  species
Neonicholsonia watsonii
Dammer

Neonicholsonia watsonii is aspecies of palm foundin Central America and the only member of the genus Neonicholsonia .

features

Neonicholsonia is a single-stemmed palm. The trunk is partly underground, the above-ground part is only short: 10 to 15, rarely up to 100 cm. The crown consists of four to nine pinnate leaves . The leaf sheaths are closed and 20 to 30 cm long, but do not form a crown shaft. The petiole is 0.24 to 1 m long, rounded on the underside, slightly furrowed on the top. The rachis is 1 to 1.2 m long. The leaflets are arranged regularly, 11 to 15 on each side, alternate, linear-lanceolate and with a distinct central rib. There are no scales or dots on the underside. The basal leaflets are 22 to 37 cm long, the middle 32 to 49 cm and the terminal leaflet 17 to 27 cm.

The inflorescence arises between the leaves and is upright at the time of bud, flowering and fruiting. The peduncle is 67 to 98 cm long with a diameter of 0.5 cm; he has a few brown, pressed scales. The cover sheet is 18 to 45 cm long and 1.5 to 2 cm in diameter. The bract ( spathe ) is 0.7 to 1 m long. An inflorescence axis is missing, the side axes are 27 to 51 cm long and covered with whitish hair. The flowers are dense and slightly sunk into the axes in groups of three. In the last third of the side axes they are only paired or singly.

The male flowers are 4 to 5 mm long, their sepals are fused to form a 2 to 3 mm long, three-lobed cupula. The petals are lanceolate and 4 to 5 mm long. The stamens are fused in the lower area, distally free. Three are around 3.5 mm long, three 2.5 mm. The anthers are 3 mm long. The rudiment of the stamp is three-lobed and 1 to 2 mm long. The female flowers are 4.5 mm long. The sepals are triangular and 3 mm long, the petals triangular and 4 mm long. Staminodes are absent. The gynoeceum is unicameral and contains only one ovule ; this sits basal.

The fruits are ellipsoidal-elongated and 0.9 to 1 cm long with a diameter of 0.5 to 0.6 cm. The remnants of the scars are at the top of the fruit. The exocarp is black. The seeds are approximately spherical with a diameter of around 5 mm. The endosperm is deeply furrowed. The primary leaf is pinnate with a short rhachis .

distribution

The species occurs on the Atlantic and Pacific slopes of Honduras ( Departamento Gracias a Dios ), Nicaragua ( Zelaya ), Costa Rica ( Alajuela , Guanacaste , Puntarenas ) and Panama ( Chiriquí ). It grows in the undergrowth of lowland rainforests, mainly at low altitude, rarely occurs up to 600 m or higher. It grows on the slopes and ridges of low hills.

Systematics

The genus Neonicholsonia is placed within the family Arecaceae in the subfamily Arecoideae , tribe Euterpeae . An extensive cladistic analysis revealed the genus Prestoea as a sister group , but in this analysis the genus Oenocarpus was missing from the representatives of the tribe .

The only species of the genus is Neonicholsonia watsonii . Species and genus were first described in 1901 by Carl Lebrecht Udo Dammer .

supporting documents

  • Andrew Henderson, Gloria Galeano: Euterpe, Prestoea, and Neonicholsonia (Palmae: Euterpeinae) . Flora Neotropica, Volume 72, New York Botanical Garden Press, New York 1996, pp. 1-90. (JSTOR)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John Dransfield, Natalie W. Uhl, Conny B. Asmussen, William J. Baker, Madeline M. Harley, Carl E. Lewis: A New Phylogenetic Classification of the Palm Family, Arecaceae . Kew Bulletin, Vol. 60, 2005, pp. 559-569. (JSTOR)
  2. Conny B. Asmussen, John Dransfield, Vinnie Deickmann, Anders S. Barfod, Jean-Christophe Pintaud, William J. Baker: A new subfamily classification of the palm family (Arecaceae): evidence from plastid DNA phylogeny . Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. Volume 151, 2006, pp. 15-38. doi : 10.1111 / j.1095-8339.2006.00521.x
  3. ^ Rafaël Govaerts (ed.): Neonicholsonia. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved September 14, 2009.

Web links

  • Neonicholsonia on the homepage of the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden