Welfia alfredii
| Welfia alfredii | ||||||||||||
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| Welfia alfredii | ||||||||||||
| Henderson & Villalba |
Welfia alfredii is a species of palm native to South America.
features
Welfia alfredii is a moderately large, single-stemmed and unreinforced palm species. It blooms several times and is single-sexed ( monoecious ). The trunk is upright. The leaf scars are conspicuous, wide and rather distant.
The palm trees reach heights of 9 to 19 m, with the trunk 5 to 12 m high and a diameter of 14 to 20 cm. The crown consists of around 8 (7 to 9) leaves per stem. The leaf sheaths are around 74 (64 to 90) cm long, the leaf stalks are rather short. The rhachis is on average 464 (360 to 540) cm long. On each leaf side there are 76 (65 to 85) leaflets on average.
The cover sheet of the inflorescence is 83 cm long. The bracts on the peduncle are 65 cm long. The peduncle is on average 22.2 (18 to 24.5) cm long. There are an average of 12 (8 to 16) rachillae , they are 72.1 (55 to 10) cm long and 25.4 (19.4 to 28.1) mm in diameter. The male flowers have an average of 45 (44 to 46) stamens .
The fruits are spherical and not or only slightly compressed dorsiventrally. On the side they hardly have a protruding ridge, the point is blunt. The base is contracted. The fruit is on average 34.3 (33.1 to 35.4) mm long and has a diameter of 25.9 (24.8 to 28.0) mm in diameter.
Young plants remain stemless for several years. The woody leaf sheaths remain on the trunk up to a trunk height of around five meters. They remain until manhood , then they fall off en masse. Thereafter, irregular internodes and inflorescence scars are visible on the trunk. The male flowers have a strong scent. They attract numerous insects, including bees, flies and thrips . The fruits take 18 to 20 months to ripen. The fruits are very hard and dense. Seed dispersers are not known.
Distribution and locations
Welfia alfredii occurs only in central Peru , in the regions of Huánuco , Pasco and Ucayali . It grows in the Cordillera Oriental , Cordillera El Sira and on the eastern flank of the Cordillera Yanachaga at 1391 to 1725 m above sea level in the mountain rainforest .
On the Yanachaga, Welfia alfredii grows in wet premontane forests and prefers slightly loamy sandy soils. Here it forms densely packed populations. In the forests, large trees with Croton matourensis and other palms such as Socratea exorrhiza , Dictyocaryum lamarckianum , and Euterpe luminosa dominate . The undergrowth is sparse and consists of Melastomataceae bushes, ferns (e.g. Cyathea ), palms such as Geonoma longipedunculata and juvenile Socratea exorrhiza and Welfia alfredii .
Systematics
The first specimens of Welfia alfredii were collected in 1988 by Alwyn Howard Gentry , further collections were made in 1988 by Rainer and 1998 by Henderson. Everyone recognized that the specimens were different from Welfia regia . Compared to Welfia regia, Welfia alfredii has clearly distinguishable fruits and also has a clearly different area. The nearest populations of Welfia regia are around 1100 km away.
The species Welfia alfredii was described by Andrew James Henderson and Isabel Villalba in 2013. It is named after Alfred Henderson.
Individual evidence
- ^ 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.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Andrew Henderson, Isabel Villalba: A revision of Welfia (Arecaceae) . Phytotaxa, Volume 119, 2013, pp. 33-44. doi: 10.11646 / phytotaxa.119.1.3