Hemithrinax

Hemithrinax is a native Cuban species of the palm family.

Features

The representatives are small to moderately large, single -stemmed hermaphrodite fan palms. They are unarmed and repeatedly flowering. The stem is erect, sometimes very short, columnar and smooth to fibrous. There are a number of fibrous roots at the base. The leaves are often crowded. You are induplicat (V -shaped) folded and often irregular. The leaf sheaths are fibrous. The petiole is rather short. The leaf blade is fan-shaped and divided into segments simply folded in half to two-thirds of the length. The segments are lanceolate and bifid at the end.

The flowers are hermaphrodite. You are sitting or standing on small elevations of the axis. The perianth is uniform and is hexadentate. There is a carpel. The six stamens are bent inwards in bud position. The stamens are fused at the base to a low ring. The connective is very broad, the anthers are seated, in outline oblong- elliptic, and extrors.

The chromosome number is 2n = 36

Dissemination and locations

All three types of Hemithrinax are Lokalendemiten in Cuba. Two species growing on sandstone in up to 400 m above sea level, Hemithrinax rivularis grows over ultrabasischem rock near rivers at low altitudes.

System

The genus Hemithrinax is placed in the subfamily Coryphoideae, Tribe Cryosophileae within the family Arecaceae. The genus is monophyletic. Her sister group may Leucothrinax.

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

• Hemithrinax compacta
• Hemithrinax ekmaniana
• Hemithrinax rivularis

The genus name is derived from the Greek word for half and the generic name Thrinax. He probably refers to the fact that the species of the genus Thrinax is similar. Type species is Hemithrinax compacta.

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. 228ff.