Phoenicophorium borsigianum

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Phoenicophorium borsigianum
Latanier palm Seychelles.jpg

Phoenicophorium borsigianum

Systematics
Monocots
Commelinids
Order : Palm- like arecales
Family : Palm family (Arecaceae)
Genre : Phoenicophorium
Type : Phoenicophorium borsigianum
Scientific name of the  genus
Phoenicophorium
H. Wendl.
Scientific name of the  species
Phoenicophorium borsigianum
(K.Koch) Stuntz

Phoenicophorium borsigianum is a species of palm endemic to the Seychelles . It is the only species in the genus Phoenicophorium .

features

Phoenicophorium borsigianum is a medium-sized, single-stemmed palm. Young specimens are armed, in old age they are more or less unarmed. They are single sexed ( monoecious ) and bloom several times. The trunk is erect and has conspicuous, ring-shaped leaf scars . Young palm trees have numerous black spines.

The chromosome number is 2n = 32.

leaves

The leaves are large, divided in two and lobed. They fall off with a smooth scar. The leaf veins are pinnate-shaped. The leaf sheaths open and do not form a clear corolla. The sheaths are thickly hairy when young and covered with black spines, but later become rather bald. The petiole is well developed and also black thorns when young. The leaf blade is divided into two parts and has very showy, pinnate-shaped ribs. Along the abaxial ribs they tear an eighth to third of the length. The blade is light green, often with a red tinge. The upper side of the leaf is bare, the underside is densely covered with punctiform scales.

Inflorescences

The inflorescences stand individually between the leaves (interfoliar) and are double in the lower area, single branched in the upper area. The inflorescences are proterandric . The peduncle is long and winged at the base, unreinforced and glabrous. The cover sheet starts at some distance from the base of the inflorescence stalk, is persistent, leathery, tubular and two-keeled. There is a bract on the peduncle that attaches some distance from the cover leaf, but is enclosed by this. It is woody, conspicuously beaked, sloping and unreinforced. It is roehrig, but then tears open along its entire length. The inflorescence axis is significantly shorter than the stem. Their bracts are small, triangular and inconspicuous. The side axes of the first order are spiraling in groups, are more hanging. The flower-bearing axes (rachillae) are bare, slender, long and flexible. The flower-free area is short, the flowers are in spirally arranged triads. The bracteoles are very small.

blossoms

The male flowers are slightly asymmetrical. The three sepals are not fused and are imbricat . They are plump and keeled. The three petals are four to five times as long as the sepals. They are also not grown together, but are valvat . There are 15 to 18 stamens , they are short in the bud, then long, slender when flowering and have long anthers . These are medifix, arrow-shaped in the lower area and are latrors. The pollen is ellipsoidal and bisymmetrical. The germ opening is a distal sulcus.

The female flowers are spherical and about the same size as the male. The three sepals are free, imbricat, rounded and keeled. The three petals are free, rounded, imbrikat and have short, triangular tips. There are six tooth-shaped staminodes . The gynoeceum is asymmetrically ovoid and consists of a compartment with an ovule . The three scars are apical. The ovule starts laterally.

fruit

The fruit is single-seeded, red in color, rather small and ovoid to ellipsoidal. The inflorescence is preserved on the ripe fruit, the remains of the stigma are subbasal. The exocarp is shiny, the mesocarp is thin, fleshy and has a thick layer of tannic cells towards the endocarp . The endocarp is thin and cartilaginous. The seed is egg-shaped, sits basal and has a rounded hilum. The few raphenous branches are anastomosing. The endosperm is deeply furrowed (ruminate).

Distribution and locations

Phoenicophorium borsigianum is widespread in the Seychelles . It occurs frequently from sea level to around 300 m above sea level, above which it is far less common. Sometimes it occurs in pure stocks. The species is relatively tolerant of disturbances. It is often planted as an ornamental plant.

Systematics

The genus Phoenicophorium is placed within the family Arecaceae in the subfamily Arecoideae , Tribus Areceae and Subtribus Verschaffeltiinae . Her sister genus is Nephrosperma .

In the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew , only the species Phoenicophorium borsigianum is recognized.

The name is made up of the Greek words phoenix for palm and phorios for stolen. The specimen originally intended for the later first person to describe the genus, Hermann Wendland , was stolen from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

supporting documents

  • 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. 613-615.

Individual evidence

  1. Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Phoenicophorium. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved October 13, 2010.

Web links