Manicaria

Young plants of Manicaria saccifera in Costa Rica

Manicaria is a native to Central America Palm genus. She is the only member of the tribe Manicarieae.

• 5.1 Notes and references

Features

The representatives are robust, single or multi-stemmed, non-reinforced palms. They are several times flourishing and monoecious. The stem is rather short, erect to decumbent, and sometimes branched dichotomously. He has striking rings of the leaf scars. At the base of the stem is enlarged and carries a plurality of roots.

The chromosome number is unknown.

The leaves are very large and remain after the death longer on the plant ( Marzeszenz ). The leaves are pinnate, or split, or they are different parts to the rachis or only partially. The leaf sheath tears over the petiole on, it is narrow and deep furrowed distally. The edges are covered with numerous fibers. The petiole is long, deeply grooved on the upper side, keeled at the bottom. The stem is occupied at the bottom with small, rough scales. When the leaf blade is divided, the segments are simply folded, narrow, long and short two-piece top. The midribs are at the bottom is clear as the Intercostalrippen.

Inflorescences

The inflorescences individually, between the sheets ( interfoliar ) and are protandrous. They are branched from one to four times. The peduncle is short, provided round in cross section, rather slender, with a thick red hair. The cover sheet is long, Roehrig, slightly thickened onion-like at the base and tapers to a fixed point. It wraps the inflorescence all the way in is flexible, net-like and consists of thin, interconnected fibers. The bract on peduncle is similar to the previous sheet, but is roughly in the middle of the peduncle on. About this first some are long, fibrous, incomplete bracteoles. The inflorescence axis is longer than the stem. At her are rather long in a spiral arrangement, narrow, pointed bracts, in whose armpit ever a flower-bearing axis ( Rachilla ) is. The Rachillae are short to moderate in length, are rather crowded, and are occupied bald or with decrepit, dark red hair. The bracts at the Rachillae are stiff, pointed and bear basal few ( one to three ) triads.

Flowers

The male flowers are slightly asymmetrical and in the bud obovate. The three sepals are broadly rounded, fused at the base to about one third of the length, and imbricat in the free area. The base is thick, the edges thin. The three petals are more than twice as long as the sepals, and are connected to the Receptaculum to a fixed base. Basal they are fused with the filaments. The tip are free, thick, valvat, and furrowed at the top. There are 30 to 35 stamens. The filaments are circular in cross section, they are excessively long, rolled several times in the bud. The anthers are oblong, dorsifix above the base, open intrors. The connectives are tannic. A stamp rudiment is missing. The pollen is ellipsoidal, triangular, with mild to significant asymmetry. The germ is opening a distal sulcus or a Trichotomosulcus. The longest axis measures 32 to 40 micrometers.

The female flowers are short ovate in bud. The three sepals are free imbricat, with spatulate tip. The three petals are unequal, thick and valvat. There are around 15 straight, flat, thin staminodes. The gynoecium is triangular in cross section, obovate, truncat, with three compartments with one ovule. On it sit three central, straight, intergrown stylus that end in three straight scars. The ovules are grown laterally and anatrop.

Fruit and seeds

The fruits are large, roundish with one to three lobes and one to three seeds. The scars radicals subbasal. The exocarp is obsoleszent to maturity, the outer mesocarp is woody and covered with wart-like growths, the inner mesocarp is spongy, tannic. The endocarp is thin and smooth. The seed is round and sits basal. The Raphe branches are sunk, run parallel, are scarcely branched. The endosperm is homogeneous and hollow. The embryo sits basal.

Dissemination and locations

Manicaria occurs in Central America and South America. The area includes firstly the southern Central America and the Pacific coast of the adjacent northern South America, on the other hand, the area of the Orinoco Delta, the Guyanas and the Amazon Basin. It grows in freshwater swamps mostly near the coast. Sometimes it forms large, dense stands.

System

The genus Manicaria is placed in the subfamily within the family Arecaceae Arecoideae alone forms the tribe Manicarieae. The tribe within the subfamily part of the " core Arecoideen " (core arecoids ). The exact systematic position of the tribes within this core Arecoideen is uncertain.

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

• Manicaria martiana
• Manicaria saccifera

The genus Manicaria was set up by gardeners in 1791 with the only kind Manicaria saccifera, which was known from the coasts of northern South America at that time. Martius and Wallace found the way later in the Amazon delta. Grisebach 1864 described a second species, Manicaria pluckenetii from Trinidad, but this was considered since the work of Drude in 1881 as a variety of M. saccifera.

Inside the Amazonian genus was first described by Trail in 1876 and var the plants on sandy soils on the Rio Negro near Manaus as Manicaria saccifera mediterranea described. 1928, then Max burret Manicaria martiana also described from Manaus. He looked at the variety described by Trail as a synonym of its kind in 1930 described burret Manicaria atricha the Río Vaupés on the Brazil - Colombia border. Since then, there was not a generic revision. Modern work on the genus can be found by Wessels Boer 1988, Henderson 1995 and Henderson et al. In 1995. Wessels Boer recognized all three types, but left open the possibility that there could be only one way Manicaria saccifera. Henderson and Henderson et al. recognized only Manicaria saccifera. The latter opinion was followed by later authors, including Govaerts and Dransfield, 2005, and the authors of Genera palmarum 2008. Fieldwork in the area of ​​Río Vaupés together with Herbarstudien let Bernal and Galeano 2010, however, but raise Manicaria martiana again for the independent type.

They were followed by the agents of the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families of the Royal Botanic Gardens database, Kew.

Use

Various Indian tribes prepare medicine for coughs from the milk of unripe fruit. This liquid is used sometimes in combination with various other plants, also used to treat fever and diarrhea in infants.

Each tree yields about 7 kg of fruit per year. These contain about 57 % oil similar to coconut oil.

The bracts of the inflorescence ( spathe ) are made into hats and backpacks, the petioles are used as kindling use. The leaves are used for thatching.

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. 454-457.