Lepidocaryum

Lepidocaryum tenue is a native to the tropical Americas palm. She is the only member of the genus Lepidocaryum.

• 4.1 Notes and references

Features

The representatives are multi-stemmed, non-reinforced fan palms. They are dioecious, flowering times. The stem is erect and springs from a slender rhizome. The internodes are short, the leaf scars rather unremarkable.

The chromosome number is 2n = 30,

The leaves are small and Palmat ( palmately divided ). The leaf sheath tears over the petiole, and is often filled with a very dense coat. The petiole is long. A Hastula mostly missing. The leaf blade is divided by a few, to the point of leaf growth reaching cracks in a few, pointed, segments of different widths.

Inflorescences

The inflorescences are individually and between the sheets. Male and female inflorescences are branched similar and duplicate. The cover page is Roehrig, close-fitting, zweikielig and thus two short lobes. The peduncle is long and carries multiple -tube bracts. The inflorescence axis is longer than the peduncle. The bracts of the inflorescence axis are similar to those on - stalk, but a tear at the top. Each bract carrying a side branch of the first order. These are rather short and wear a baslaes, röhriges, zweikieliges cover page and sometimes an empty röhriges bract, as well as in -tube arrangement disticher bracts which bear each a flower-bearing side axis ( Rachilla ).

The male Rachillae are rather short and bent back. In them, the flowers are individually or in pairs. The female Rachillae are very short, the flowers appear on them individually.

Flowers

The male flowers are symmetrical. The cup is Roehrig and short -lobed. The crown extends far beyond the chalice addition, the base is deformed, the tips are valvat. The six stamens set at the base of the petals. The stamens are thick and fleshy, the anthers are rather small, and basifix latrors.

The pollen is ellipsoidal and bisymmetrical. The germ is opening a distal sulcus. The longest axis measures 28 to 41 microns.

The female flowers are larger than the males. The cup is Roehrig and three-lobed. The crown is much longer than the calyx, Roehrig in the lower third and has three long lobes. There are six staminodes with tiny, empty anthers. The gynoecium is incomplete dreifächrig and roundish. It contains three ovules. The surface is covered with vertical rows of scales. The stylus is conical and short -lobed. The ovules are anatrop.

Fruit and seeds

The fruit is globose to oblong, usually has a seed and bears apical scar remains. The exocarp is busy with vertical rows of reddish- brown scales. The mesocarp is thin, a endocarp is not differentiated. The seed sits near the base of the sides in the fruit. The endosperm is homogeneous.

Dissemination and locations

Lepidocaryum tenue grows in the wetter areas of the Amazon basin in Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Guyana and Brazil. It grows in the understory of tropical lowland rain forests.

System

The genus Lepidocaryum is placed in the subfamily Calamoideae, Tribe Lepidocaryeae, subtribe Mauritiinae within the family Arecaceae. She is the sister group of the group of Mauritia and Mauritiella. It is the smallest member of the subtribe.

In the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, just the way Lepidocaryum tenue is recognized and divided into three varieties:

• Lepidocaryum tenue var casiquiarense
• Lepidocaryum tenue var gracile
• Lepidocaryum tenue tenue var

The name Lepidocaryum is composed of the Greek words for dandruff and nut and refers to the scaly fruit.

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. 158-161.