Welfia
| Welfia | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Welfia regia |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Welfia | ||||||||||||
| H. Wendl. |
Welfia is a palm genus native to Central and South America. It is moderately large and pinnate. Characteristic are the strong flower-bearing axes with deep pits in which the flowers stand, the male flowers with numerous stamens .
features
The representatives are moderately large, single-stemmed and unreinforced palms. They reach heights of 6 to 25 m. They bloom several times and are single-sexed ( monoecious ). The trunk is upright and reaches heights of 4.4 to 22.5 m. The leaf scars are conspicuous, wide and rather distant. The upper part of the trunk is orange to brown.
The number of chromosomes is unknown.
leaves
The leaves are large and remain on the plant for a long time after they have died (marzescence). The leaves are regularly pinnate, more or less upright and curved at the tip, so that a feather duster- like crown is formed. The leaf sheath tears open early compared to the petiole, nor does it form a crown shaft. The abaxial side is thick, slightly ribbed and densely hairy. The edges break up into large fibers. The petiole is short, deeply furrowed adaxially, rounded abaxially and densely hairy. The rachis is much longer than the stalk, adaxially flattened, laterally furrowed and abaxially rounded.
The palm crown consists of 7 to 26 (on average 15) leaves. The leaf sheaths are on average 93 cm long, the petiole 37 cm and the rachis 447 (279 to 570) cm.
The leaflets are almost opposite and are broadly lanceolate and drooping. They are simply folded, glabrous, and darker at the bottom. The top is pale and densely hairy. A midrib is not visible. There are eight or more almost identical, quite long leaf veins, which are more prominent on the underside.
Inflorescences
The inflorescences stand as buds between the leaves (interfoliar) and are upright. Later they come to stand under the leaves (infrafoliar) and are hanging. They are branched one to two and are proterandric . The peduncle is short, stocky and bent back. The cover sheet is tubular, flat, wide and woody. It is deeply furrowed and hairy abaxially. The edges have wide flat keels. There is a complete bract on the peduncle. It is similar to the cover sheet, but is shorter, thinner and leathery. The following bracts are numerous, short, stiff, rounded and sit in a spiral arrangement. The inflorescence axis is short, about the same length as the stalk and carries in a spiral arrangement small, rounded or pointed, oval bracts, in whose axils are the flower-bearing axes (rachillae). The rachillae are squat and carry eight rows of partially sunken, stiff, oval bracts, in whose armpits the flower triads are in turn in pits.
blossoms
The male flowers are sessile and are in the flower pit compared to the female flower on the outside. The three sepals are chaff-like, briefly connected at the base, narrow and keeled. The three petals are elongated, fused and fused to about a third of their length with the receptacle. The free tips are boat-shaped, valvate and chaff-like. The mostly 36 (rarely 27 to 42) stamens are in antesepal and antepetal groups. The filaments are short and wide. The connective has a pointed end. The anthers are linear to arrow-shaped, basifix and intrors. The rudiment of the pistil consists of three small tubercles or is completely absent. The pollen is asymmetrically ellipsoidal or pear-shaped. The germ opening is a distal sulcus. The longest axis measures 25 to 45 µm.
The female flower is round and pointed as a bud. The three sepals are free, narrow, overlapping and keeled. The three petals are fused to two thirds or more of their length to form a tube. The free tips are triangular and valvate. The numerous staminodes (15–16) are fused with the corolla tube over two thirds of their length, the free part is ale-shaped or linear-triangular. The gynoeceum is triple with one ovule each . It is triangular with the adaxial side being longer. The stylus is long, cylindrical and carries three recurved scars . The ovules sit in the center of the fan and are anatropic.
Fruits and seeds
The fruit is either spherical and not or hardly compressed laterally, hardly furrowed laterally and apically blunt; or it is almond-shaped, slightly flattened dorsiventrally, laterally furrowed and has a short, apical point.
The color is a dull purple. The scar remains and the sterile carpels are basal. The exocarp is smooth and shiny. The mesocarp has slender, parallel fibers, the endocarp is thin and crust-shaped.
The seed is purple, ellipsoidal, apically rounded and, when ripe, is coated with a white, sweet-tasting, slimy substance. The navel (hilum) is on the side at the base. The raphe circles the seed with short basal and apical branches. The endosperm is homogeneous.
Distribution and locations
The distribution area extends from Honduras to western and eastern Colombia and to Ecuador . Welfia regia occurs from lowlands to altitudes of 2000 m in the Andes and grows in dense rainforest.
Systematics
Welfia is classified within the palm family (Arecaceae) in the subfamily Arecoideae , tribe Geonomateae . The relationships within the tribe are still unclear.
The genus was first described by Hermann Wendland in 1869 , the type species is Welfia regia . The genus is named after the sex of the Guelphs .
Since the genus revision by Henderson and Villalba in 2013, the genus consists of the following two species:
- Welfia alfredii A.J.Hend. & Villalba : It occurs in Peru.
- Welfia regia H. Wendl. : It occurs in northeastern Honduras and from southern Nicaragua to western Ecuador.
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. 470-472.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Andrew Henderson, Isabel Villalba: A revision of Welfia (Arecaceae) . Phytotaxa, Volume 119, 2013, pp. 33-44. doi: 10.11646 / phytotaxa.119.1.3
- ↑ a b Rafaël Govaerts (ed.): Welfia. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved April 17, 2020.
