Chelyocarpus

Chelyocarpus ulei with young inflorescence

Chelyocarpus is a native to South America Palm genus.

Features

Chelyocarpus forms one or more strains of this are slim, short -stemmed erect or creeping. The palm trees are hermaphrodite fan palms unarmed and repeatedly flowering. The leaves are often cut by deep and shallow incisions. The leaf sheath is fibrous and dense samthaarig, young golden - brown. At the age it breaks up into loose fibers. The petiole is long. The leaf blade is flat and thin. Along the central fold, it is clearly divided over the middle or nearly to the base. The resulting halves are further divided into broad, easily folded segments ( Chelyocarpus Chuco ), or they are oblong, wedge-shaped, repeatedly folded segments available. These can be divided again in the end zone in single folded sub-segments.

The inflorescence is between the leaves, is suspended and a branch to two times. The flowers are hermaphrodite and very fragrant. The sepals are free almost to the base. The flowers usually have two or three free carpels. The stamens have fleshy, broad filaments. The fruit develops from only one carpel. It is spherical, the exocarp is smooth or rough corky - warted, the mesocarp is thick and dry, the endocarp is membranous.

The chromosome number is 2n = 36

Dissemination and locations

Chelyocarpus occurs from Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia to the west in the Amazon region. The representatives grow in the lowland areas of high rainfall. The deposits are consistent with three of the nine of Haffer 1969 postulated regions where the rain forest survived in the dry periods of the Pleistocene.

System

The genus Chelyocarpus is placed in the subfamily Coryphoideae, Tribe Cryosophileae within the family Arecaceae. The genus is possibly the sister group to all other genera of the Cryosophileae.

In the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the following types are recognized:

• Chelyocarpus Chuco
• Chelyocarpus dianeurus
• Chelyocarpus repens
• Chelyocarpus ulei

The name Chelyocarpus consists of the ancient Greek words for turtle and fruit together, and refers to the surface of the fruit, which resembles the surface of a tortoise shell.

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. 234-237.