Cliff Date Palm
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Cliff Date Palm ( Phoenix rupicola ) |
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| Phoenix rupicola | ||||||||||||
| T.Anderson |
The cliff date palm ( Phoenix rupicola ) is a species of palm native to South Asia.
features
The cliff date palm has a solitary trunk. This becomes 3 to 5 m high. The diameter without the leaf sheaths is 17 to 25 cm. The trunk is smooth, the leaf scars are not clearly visible. The leaf crown is around 4.5 m wide and around 6 m high. The leaves are 1.5 to 2.5 m long. The leaf sheaths are reddish brown and fibrous. The acanthophylls stand in one plane, on each side of the rachis there are 10 to 15 of them. They are often green and soft and up to 7 cm long. The leaflets are close together and are arranged in one plane. They are dark, shiny green in color and about 24 to 60 × 1 to 3 cm in size. The underside of the leaf is covered in the region of the midrib with persistent but not continuous white hairs.
The male inflorescences are erect, without propyll and with about 22 cm long flower-bearing side axes (rachillae). The female inflorescences are erect and arching, then drooping at maturity. There is no prophyll. The inflorescence stalk is 50 to 100 cm long and 2.5 to 3.5 cm thick. The rachillae stand in horizontal bundles and are around 55 cm long. There are around 120. The female flowers are in the upper half of the rachillae. The chalice is a three-pointed cup 1.5 to 2.5 mm high. The petals are 3.5 × 4 to 6 mm in size.
The fruits are obovate and 15 × 9 mm in size. The color is yellow to orange, purple-brown when ripe. The seed is obovate and 12 - 15 × 5 - 7 mm in size. The endosperm is homogeneous.
Flowering time is in May and June, the fruits ripen from October to December. The fruits are sweet but floury and are eaten by mammals and birds.
Distribution and locations
The cliff date palm is native to South Asia. It occurs in the southern and central districts of Bhutan , as well as in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal in India (in the valleys of Sivoka , Birick , Nimbong , Teesta and Mahanadi ).
It grows in inaccessible places in warm, damp forests or in open areas on steep rocky slopes, in ravines and on rocks. It occurs at 300 to 1220 m above sea level.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Robert Lee Riffle, Paul Craft: An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms . Timber Press, Portland 2007, ISBN 978-0-88192-558-6 , p. 405.
- ↑ a b c d e f Sasha C. Barrow: A Monograph of Phoenix L. (Palmae: Coryphoideae). In: Kew Bulletin. Volume 53, No. 3, 1998, pp. 513-575, here pp. 537-538. ( JSTOR 4110478 )
Web links
- Phoenix rupicola inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . 2. Listed by: Johnson, D., 1998. Retrieved May 20, 2015.