Livistona

Livistona australis, Illustration

Livistona is a predominantly Native to Southeast Asia and Australia palm species. Several species are grown as ornamental plants. From the leaves roofs and umbrellas are manufactured from the fibers ropes and cloth. The wood of the trunks is also used.

• 4.1 Notes and references

Features

The representatives are usually large, single stemmed fan palm trees. But there are also some dwarf types. You are armed or unarmed. They are usually hermaphrodite, rarely dioecious, but more and more flourishing times. The stem is erect and initially obscured by the persistent leaf sheaths. Later, the trunk is bare or is covered with the leaf bases. The leaf scars are annular.

The chromosome number is 2n = 36

The leaves are fan-shaped and induplicat ( Palmat ) or costapalmat. They remain after the death of the plant ( Marzeszenz ) or fall off under their own weight. Sometimes a " dress " of dead leaves is formed. The leaf sheath disintegrates into a striking, often cloth-like reddish- brown mass of wide and fine fibers. The petiole is well trained, furrowed at the top or flat, roundish at the bottom or square. At the base of the stem is sometimes extended or thickened onion-like. The edges of the petiole may be occupied with inconspicuous to massive horizontal spines or teeth. The adaxial Hastula is pronounced, the abaxial hard not to.

The leaf blade is along the adaxial ribs cut at different depths, which simply folded, rare multi-fold segments arise. The segments are further divided along the abaxial folds in the short to long distance. The adaxial cracks rarely reach almost to the Costa Hastula or, in this case the segments are always just folded and very narrow. The segments are stiff to hanging. Along the ridge sits scattered pubescence, sometimes at the bottom is wax, even more rarely both leaf surfaces. The middle ribs are clearly visible.

Inflorescences

The inflorescences are individually between sheets ( interfoliar ) and are up to five times branched. Sometimes the inflorescence is divided into three branches at the base, so that three " inflorescences " are in a common cover page, in which case each part also has its own cover sheet ( Livistona rotundifolia at about ). The peduncle is long. The cover page is zweikielig, Roehrig, with tight-fitting sheath, and can be occupied by different types of hair. Where the stem to a few bracts are present. These are similar to the previous sheet and Roehrig. The inflorescence axis is usually longer than the stem. Your bracts are different hairy with Indument, each wearing a side branch of the first order. The bracts of the lateral axes of higher order are usually inconspicuous. The flower-bearing axes ( Rachillae ) are upright, hanging or spreading, glabrous or hairy, usually numerous. You wear the flowers in a spiral arrangement. These are available individually or in coils of up to five flowers. You are sitting or standing at low elevations or slender stems. Each group stands in the axil of a small high leaf, each flower has a tiny Brakteole.

Flowers

The flowers of most representatives are hermaphroditic. They are small to very small, and usually cream-colored. The calyx is often with the receptaculum a short, wide stalk. The overlying part of the calyx is Roehrig and finally ends in three triangular lobes. These are sometimes imbricat at the base. The crown is flat, Roehrig at the base, and ends in three triangular lobes valvaten. The six stamens are epipetal. Their filaments are fused together to form a fleshy ring, Sthen on the short, slender, free filaments. The anthers are Medifix, roundish to elongated and open latrors itself. The gynoecium consists of three carpels, these are wedge-shaped, in the ovules and freely grown in the distal region, so that a common, streamlined style is created. At its top is a point or small dreizipfelige scar. The ovule consists of basal and anatrop.

In dioecious representatives are missing either the stamens or the gynoecium. Otherwise, the flowers resemble the hermaphrodite.

The pollen is ellipsoidal, bisymmetrical, sometimes slightly asymmetric. The germ is opening a distal sulcus.

Fruit and seeds

The fruits usually develop from a single carpel. You are kugelib to oval, pear-shaped or ellipsoidal; small to medium in size, and of a different color: green, scarlet, blue-green, blue-black, black or dark brown. The scars radicals apical, basal sterile carpels. The exocarp is smooth, dull or shiny, often with a wax coating. The mesocarp is thin or thick, fleshy or dry, slightly fibrous, and can usually be easily detached from the bony or woody endocarp. The seed is ellipsoidal or spherical, attached basally. The hilum is circular or more elongated. There are few or no Raphe branches. The endosperm is homogeneous. The embryo sits laterally.

Dissemination and locations

The main distribution area is located in Southeast Asia. The northern boundary extends from the Himalayas to the Ryukyu Islands. To the south it includes Indochina and Malaysia's and extends to New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Australia. One way Livistonia carinensis, occurs in the Horn of Africa and Arabia.

The species inhabit very different locations: freshwater and swamp forests ( Livistona saria ), mountain forests ( Livistona tahanensis and jenkinsiana ), the understory of tropical rain forests ( Livistona exigua ), dry savanna trees ( Livistona humilis and lorophylla ), canyon bottoms in deserts with continuous water supply ( Livistona mariae and australis), and subtropical forests ( Livistona rotundifolia about ). Many species grow in groups.

System

The genus Livistona is placed in the subfamily Coryphoideae, Tribe Trachycarpeae, subtribe Livistoninae within the family Arecaceae. The monophyly of the genus has not yet been investigated. Livistona is probably the sister group of the remaining representatives of the Livistoninae.

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

• Livistona alfredii
• Livistona australis
• Livistona benthamii
• Livistona boninensis
• Livistona carinensis
• Livistona chinensis
• Livistona concinna
• Livistona decora
• Livistona drudei
• Livistona eastonii
• Livistona endauensis
• Livistona exigua
• Livistona fulva
• Livistona halongensis
• Livistona humilis
• Livistona inermis
• Livistona jenkinsiana
• Livistona lanuginosa
• Livistona lorophylla
• Livistona mariae
• Livistona muelleri
• Livistona nasmophila
• Livistona nitida
• Livistona rigida
• Livistona saribus
• Livistona speciosa
• Livistona tahanensis
• Livistona victoriae

Livistona was first described by Robert Brown in 1810, the type species ( lectotype ) is Livistona humilis. The genus name honors Patrick Murray, Baron Livingstone, who had created in the late 17th century in Livingstone west of Edinburgh a garden on his property.

The endemic in the Australian outback Livistona mariae is genetically almost identical to Livistona rigida and genetically isolated since only 9000-31000 years of the latter, which in 2012 gave rise to the speculation that seeds were brought from outside Australia by Aboriginal people immigrating to Australia; therefore refers to a single article

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. 260-263.