Mauritiella

Mauritiella armata

Mauritiella is a native to the tropical Americas palm genus. The root of the fan palm is covered with root thorns.

• 4.1 Notes and references

Features

The representatives are medium-sized, multi-stemmed fan palm trees with erect stems. The trunk is partially obscured by the dead leaf sheaths, the lower areas are free. The internodes are often filled with thorn-like adventitious roots. The representatives are dioecious getrenntgeschlechtig.

The chromosome number is 2n = 30,

The leaves are palmately divided. They are medium sized, reduplicat and costapalmat short. The petiole is clearly developed, smooth, unarmed and often coated with wax. The leaf blade is approximately circular in outline. Along abaxial folds of the leaf blade is divided almost to the starting point. The segments are folded numerous and easy. Your tip is very short in two parts. The upper leaf surface is usually glabrous, the lower surface is usually covered with white wax and dandruff.

Inflorescences

The inflorescences are usually solitary and between the sheets ( interfoliar ). The male and female inflorescences are quite similar. The peduncle is short, the cover sheet briefly, Roehrig, zweikielig. The numerous bracts on the inflorescence stem overlap each other and are distich. The inflorescence axis is substantially longer than the peduncle. The bracts on the axis are similar to those on the stem, each carrying a hanging or protruding lateral axis of the first order. On the side axis is a short, zweikieliges, röhriges cover page and one to a few empty distiche bracts. The following bracts are Roehrig and short, each wearing a very short flower-bearing axis ( Rachilla ).

The male kitten Rachillae are similar. In the basal -tube zweikielige Vorblatt follow especially narrow spirally arranged bracts, in each of which a single male flower is a tubed zweikieligen Brakteole.

The female Rachillae are very short and also kitten similar. The bracts are spirally to approximately double spaced and each carry a single female flower.

Flowers

The male flowers are symmetrical. The cup is Roehrig and short -lobed. The crown is Roehrig at the base and has three long, leathery lobes, which are much longer than the calyx. The six stamens have thick, angular, long stamens. The anthers are oblong, basifix and latrors. The stamp rudiment is very small.

The pollen is spherical, the germ opening monoporat. The longest axis measures 40 to 55 microns.

The female flowers are larger than the males. The cup is Roehrig and short -lobed. The crown is fused in the lower third to half. The six staminodes are laterally fused with her two stamens. The gynoecium is dreifächrig with three ovules. The surface is covered with vertical rows of scales. The stylus is short staffed and with three scars. The ovules are anatrop.

Fruit and seeds

The fruit is round, usually one seed and bears apical scar remains. The exocarp is busy with numerous vertical rows of reddish- brown scales. The mesocarp is rather thick and fleshy. The endocarp is barely differentiated. The fruit, a seed is usually formed. This is round to ellipsoidal, located basally. The Testa is thin, homogeneous endosperm.

Dissemination and locations

The species occur in northern South America. They grow mainly in the lowlands and are characteristic representatives of the banks of blackwater rivers.

System

The genus Mauritiella is placed in the subfamily Calamoideae, Tribe Lepidocaryeae, subtribe Mauritiinae within the family Arecaceae.

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

• Mauritiella aculeata
• Mauritiella armata
• Mauritiella macroclada
• Mauritiella pumila

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, p