Corypha

Talipot palm

The crested palms ( Corypha ) are a genus of tall fan palms. Schopf palm trees come from India through Southeast Asia to northern Australia before. She is the only member of the tribe Corypheae. In the genus, the largest composite inflorescences of the plant kingdom occur.

• 5.1 Notes and references

Features

The representatives are large, hermaphroditic tree-shaped fan palms. You are hapaxanth, so only bloom once in a lifetime and die after fruiting from. They are single-stemmed and reinforced. The stem is erect and densely provided with annular leaf scars, which sometimes form spirals. Full-grown trees can reach 30 m in height with a trunk diameter of 90 cm.

The chromosome number is 2n = 36

The leaves are folded induplicat, costapalmat, and remain in young plants after the death of the plant ( Marzeszenz ), in older specimens with root you can cancel under their own weight. The leaf sheath sometimes has side lobes, later sometimes occurs a conspicuous, triangular column under the stem on. The edges of the leaf sheath like to dissolve into fibers. The petiole is massive, long and hairy. At the top he is deeply furrowed, rounded at the bottom and the sides bear teeth. The adaxial Hastula is well trained, the abaxial Hastula rather irregular.

The leaf blade is divided regularly in simply folded segments up to half of the radius. The segments themselves are in turn easily shared on their abaxial fold. The segments have distinct longitudinal veins numerous transverse veins. Along the folds sits flaky hair, which is more pronounced at the lower leaf surface.

Inflorescences

The inflorescences stand above the foliage leaves in the axils of reduced, scale-like leaves. They form a solid, composite, inflorescence -like structure that can be high in Corypha umbraculifera to 10 m. The individual inflorescences grow out of the mouth of the bract -like leaves or by an abaxial crack in it. You are branched three times, each side branch ends in a Rachilla ( flower-bearing axis). The cover sheet of a inflorescence is zweikielig and empty. The bracts are Roehrig, the proximal zero to a few are empty, the other bracts are inconspicuous, triangular and bear lateral branches first or higher order. The Rachillae wear in a spiral arrangement of winding up to ten individual flowers.

Flowers

The flowers are hermaphroditic and are available on short stems, which are formed by the base of the calyx and the receptaculum. The cup is basal Roehrig and ends with three flat, triangular lobes. The petals are boat-shaped, basal imbricat, their edges are usually rolled. There are six stamens, of which the three episepalen are free, the antepetalen basal connected with the three petals. The filaments have a fleshy base and taper upward. The anthers are short, basally slightly arrow-shaped, Medifix and latrors. The gynoecium consists of three carpels, and is therefore synkarp, and includes three ovules. The ovary is spherical and has three distinct furrows. The stylus is dreifurchig long and also, the scar is hardly formed. The ovules are hemianatrop.

The pollen is usually ellipsoidal and slightly asymmetrical. The germ is opening a distal sulcus. The longest axis measures 28 to 40 microns.

Fruit and seeds

The fruit is globose and one seed with basal scar remains. The exocarp is smooth, the mesocarp fleshy and endocarp thin and usually associated with the seed. The seed is globular, with basal navel ( hilum ) and with shallow furrows which correspond to the Raphenbündeln. The endosperm is homogeneous and may have a central cavity. The embryo is located apically.

Dissemination and locations

The genus comes from India through Southeast Asia to northern Australia before. The main distribution area extends from the Bay of Bengal through Indochina and Malaysia's to northern Australia. A separate area of which there are in South India and Sri Lanka. The distribution area is likely to be influenced strongly by the people, as many occurrences are in human settlements. Wild deposits are probably a hallmark of an open society such as flood plains or embossed by the storm sea near forests. In Klimaxgesellschaften the tropical rainforest they are missing.

System

The genus Corypha is placed in the subfamily within the family Arecaceae Coryphoideae and forms here alone the tribe Corypheae. The genus is monophyletic. It is part of syncarp clade within the subfamily, their sister group is probably the tribe Borasseae, perhaps the group of Borasseae and Caryoteae.

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

• Corypha lecomtei
• Corypha microclada
• Corypha taliera
• Talipot palm ( Corypha umbraculifera )
• Corypha utan

Corypha was first described in Linnaeus Species Plantarum of 1753, the type species is Corypha umbraculifera. The genus name is derived from the ancient Greek word " koryphe " starting for the summit, which perhaps refers to the large inflorescence at the tip of the stem.

Use

The representatives of the genus are used in many ways. The leaves are used as roofing material, to write on, for umbrellas, baskets and the like. Of the tribe of starch was recovered in the past.

As ornamental plants talipot palm and Corypha be planted utan.

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. 306-308.