Itaya

Itaya amicorum

Itaya amicorum is limited to a small area in the Amazon palm tree. It is the only species of the genus Itaya.

Features

Itaya is a single-stemmed, non-reinforced, hermaphrodite, and several times flourishing fan palm. The trunk is smooth. The leaves are fan-shaped ( Palmat ), and folded induplicat (v- shaped). The leaf sheath is short, fibrous and torn opposite the petiole. On sheet top and bottom of a Hastula is available. The leaf blade is in a plane, it is thin, circular and cut into the center to about three-quarters of the radius. The resulting two blade halves are in turn divided into four to seven elongated wedge-shaped, four -to seven -fold segments.

The inflorescence is between the sheets is long, curved and branched to three times. All flowers are hermaphrodite, a stalk -like base missing them. The perianth is in two parts. The ovary consists of a carpel. The number of stamens is 18 to 24 per flower.

The fruit is oblong- ovate or nearly spherical. The exocarp very small grain - roughened and owning small perforations. The mesocarp is thick, white, dry and has anastomosing fibers and an outer layer of stone cells. A endocarp is not differentiated.

The chromosome number is 2n = 36

Dissemination and locations

Itaya amicorum comes in the Amazonian area in front of the states Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil, where it grows in lowland rainforest.

System

The genus Itaya is placed in the subfamily Coryphoideae, Tribe Cryosophileae within the family Arecaceae. It is expected to be most closely related to Chelyocarpus and Cryosophila.

In the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, just the way Itaya amicorum is recognized.

The genus name comes Itaya river Itaya, a tributary of the Amazon, back. Near which the first specimens of the species were found. The first description of species and genus were made in 1972 by HE Moore.

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. 239ff.
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