Wettinia

Wettinia
Systematics
Class :	Bedecktsamer (Magnoliopsida)
	Monocots
	Commelinids
Order :	Palm- like arecales
Family :	Palm family (Arecaceae)
Genre :	Wettinia
Scientific name
	Wettinia
	Poepp. in final

Wettinia is a palm genus native to South America. The name Wettinia was chosen in honor of King Friedrich August of Saxony (1750-1827) from the House of Wettin .

features

The representatives are single to multi-stemmed, slender, unreinforced, tree-shaped palms. They are single sexed ( monoecious ) and bloom several times. The trunk is erect and has conspicuous rings of leaf scars. At the base of the trunk it carries a cone made of stilt roots , which in turn are covered with small, sharp lateral roots.

The number of chromosomes is unknown.

leaves

The crown consists of relatively few leaves . They are arranged in a spiral, less often in two rows (distich). The leaves are pinnate and leave a smooth scar when the leaves fall; they rarely remain dead on the plant (marzescence). The leaf sheaths form a clearly developed crown shaft. The petiole is rather short. There are two types of leaflets. The first type is undivided, elongated, asymmetrical and narrowly elliptical in outline. The proximal leaf margin is entire over two-thirds of its length, then serrated. The distal margin is entire on a quarter and then serrated. The ribs are conspicuous, the midrib extends from the base to the leaf margin. The other type is similar but has more stocky ribs, and it is split into several segments between the ribs down to the base, which are in several levels and give the whole leaf a plumageous appearance.

Inflorescences

The inflorescences are unisexual and are under the leaves (infrafoliar). There are three to eight, rarely up to 15, inflorescences that ripen centrifugally at one node . The central inflorescence is female or male, the lateral ones always male. Sometimes there is only one inflorescence in the node due to the death of the accessory buds. The inflorescences are spikes or simply branched. The peduncle is pronounced and shorter than to about the same length as the inflorescence axis. The cover sheet is short, tubular, two-keeled, rounded, not flattened, apically open. The distal bracts are much longer, tubular, beaked and enclose the inflorescence. They tear open lengthways. The cover leaf and all bracts on the peduncle are leathery and remain on the plant until the fruit is ripe.

The inflorescence axis and side axes are often rolled up in the bud stage. In the flowering stage, the side axes (rachillae) are protruding or hanging. The flowers are arranged in a spiral on them.

blossoms

The flowers are white to cream-colored to anthesis and are very dense.

The male flowers are densely packed in pairs without bracts or individually. They open while the whole inflorescence is still in the bud stage. The three (rarely four) sepals are briefly fused or separated, narrow-triangular and small. The petals are significantly longer, there are three (rarely four), they are narrow triangular and straight or hooked at the tip. At the base they are flappable ( valvat ). There are 6 to 20 stamens . Their filaments are short and slender, the anthers are basifix, erect, elongated and open to latrors. A stamp rudiment is missing or is very small and three-lobed.

The pollen is ellipsoidal and bisymmetrical. The germ opening is a distal sulcus. The longest axis is 43 to 50 microns long.

The female flowers are also opening while the inflorescence is still in the bud stage. They are asymmetrical due to the close packing. They usually stand together with two stunted male flowers. They have three (rarely four) sepals. These are imbricat or separate, or briefly fused at the base. They are deltoid or oblong triangular. The three (rarely four) petals are similar, but longer and wider than the sepals. There are six small, tooth-like or missing staminodes . The gynoeceum consists of one to three hairy to rough fertile carpels and zero to two abortive carpels. The stylus is basal or apical, is short or long, and hairless or hairy. There are three long, big scars . The ovules are laterally at the base of the carpel and are anatropic .

Fruits and seeds

The fruit arises from one, rarely from two, carpels. The fruits are usually densely packed. They contain a seed. They are prism-shaped, irregular, ellipsoidal or spherical. Scar remnants are basal. The exocarp is finely roughened, softly hairy, can also be warty or covered with straight to curved spines. The mesocarp is granular, with an outer layer of sclereids , beneath which lies a layer of tannic cells and fibers. The endocarp is very thin. The seed is ellipsoidal or almost spherical. Sometimes it is embedded in a gelatin-like mass. The endosperm is homogeneous or ruminate.

Distribution and locations

The representatives can be found in Panama, Colombia, Peru, western Brazil and Ecuador. The genus reaches its highest biodiversity in Colombia, west of the Andes in the Choco . It only occurs in the ever-humid tropical rainforest at low to medium altitudes.

Systematics

The genus Wettinia is placed within the family Arecaceae in the subfamily Arecoideae , Tribe Iriarteeae . The relationships within the tribe have not been clarified. Three studies came to contradicting results. The monophyly of the genus has not yet been investigated (as of 2008).

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew's World Checklist of Selected Plant Families recognizes the following species:

Wettinia aequalis (OFCook & Doyle) R.Bernal : It occurs from Panama to western Ecuador.
Wettinia aequatorialis R.Bernal: It occurs in southeast Ecuador.
Wettinia anomala (Burret) R.Bernal : It occurs from southern Colombia to northern Ecuador.
Wettinia augusta Poepp. & Endl. : It occurs from southeastern Colombia to northern Bolivia.
Wettinia castanea H.E. Moore & J.Dransf. : It occurs in northwestern Colombia.
Wettinia disticha (R.Bernal) R.Bernal : It occurs in western Colombia.
Wettinia donosoensis De Gracia & Grayum : The species first described in 2017 occurs in Panama.
Wettinia drudei (OFCook & Doyle) AJHend. : It occurs from Colombia to northern Peru and northern Brazil.
Wettinia fascicularis (Burret) HEMoore & J.Dransf. : It occurs from Colombia to northern Ecuador.
Wettinia hirsuta Burret : It occurs in Colombia.
Wettinia kalbreyeri (Burret) R.Bernal : It occurs in Colombia and Ecuador.
Wettinia lanata R.Bernal : It occurs in western Colombia.
Wettinia longipetala A.H. Gentry : It occurs in Peru.
Wettinia maynensis Spruce : It occurs from southern Colombia to Peru.
Wettinia microcarpa (Burret) R.Bernal : It occurs in northeastern Colombia.
Wettinia minima R.Bernal : It occurs in Ecuador.
Wettinia oxycarpa Galeano & R.Bernal : It occurs from western Colombia to northwestern Ecuador.
Wettinia panamensis R.Bernal : It occurs in Panama.
Wettinia praemorsa (Willd.) Wess.Boer : It occurs from Colombia to Venezuela.
Wettinia quinaria (OFCook & Doyle) Burret : It occurs from western Colombia to northwestern Ecuador.
Wettinia radiata (OFCook & Doyle) R.Bernal : It occurs from eastern Panama to western Colombia.
Wettinia verruculosa H.E. Moore : It occurs from southwestern Colombia to northwestern Ecuador.

literature

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. 367f.

Individual evidence

↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Wettinia. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved April 16, 2020.

Web links

Wettinia on the homepage of the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden

[Burkhardt2018-1] Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]

[WCSP-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Wettinia. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved April 16, 2020.