Nypa fruticans

Nipapalme ( Nypa fruticans )

The Nipapalme ( Nypa fruticans ) is a native palm in Southeast Asia.

Features

Nipapalmen are large, crawling, non-reinforced palm trees that bloom repeatedly and monoecious getrenntgeschlechtig ( monoecious ) are. The trunk is compact, prostrate or underground. The branching is dichotomous. Are located on the top of the trunk bent leaf scars on the underside are sprossbürtige roots.

The chromosome number is 2n = 34

Nipapalmen make few, very large leaves. These are pinnate erect and reduplicat. The leaf sheath breaks up very early and is bald. The petiole is stocky, broad at the base, furrowed in the lower range ( adaxial ) and upper (distal) area around. The base is often left as a conical stump after the sheet has disintegrated. The rachis is about basal and distal edges. The numerous leaflets are simply folded, standing in a regular arrangement, are pointed and leathery. The midrib is clearly highlighted and carries its own, shiny, chestnut brown, membranous hair at the bottom.

Inflorescences and flowers

The structure of the inflorescences is unique within the palm family.

The inflorescences are individually between sheets ( interfoliar ). They are upright and five ( rarely up to six ) times branched. You are protogyn. The inflorescence stem is round in cross section. The cover page is zweikielig and Roehrig. The bract on peduncle is Roehrig and somewhat inflated, acuminate, rubbery and tears along to. The inflorescence axis is usually shorter than the stem, round and terminates in a head of female flowers. Under this head there are seven to nine spirally arranged, somewhat inflated, tubed bracts. In each of these bracts is a lateral axis of the first order. This page axes are fused to each other via their bracts half their length. Each page has an axis röhriges cover page, from which it is encased in the bud stage. The side axes of higher order have all a complete röhriges, closed cover page and end in a short, kitten -like flower-bearing axis ( Rachilla ). The Rachillae wear tightly packed in a spiral array of individually arranged male flowers, each flower in the axil of a small carrier sheet.

The male flowers are sessile. The three sepals are free, narrow and verkehrtlanzettlich. The three petals are free, easy imbricat, similar to the sepals, but they are slightly larger. The perianth is closed in bud only loosely over the stamens. The three stamens are fused to filaments and connectives at a fixed stem. The anthers are oblong and are extrors. A stamp rudiment does not exist. The pollen is spheroidal and bilaterally. The germ opening is a meridional Zonasulcus. The diameter is 37 to 80 micrometers.

The female flowers are very different from the male. The three sepals are oblanzeolat free and irregular. The three petals are similar to those of male flowers. Staminodes absent. The three, rarely four carpels are free and matured significantly greater than the perianth, which they cover. They are roughly obovate, asymmetrical and edgy by the mutual pressure. Distal they are pointed. The scars opening sits slightly to the side and is funnel-shaped. The ovule is anatrop.

Fruit and seeds

The fruits are in an approximately spherical fruit stand. Fertile and only partially developed fruits are mixed in a fruit stand. Per flower form one to three carpels from a seed. The fruit develops from a single carpel, it is compressed and irregular edges. The scars radical terminally and is pyramidal. The exocarp is smooth, the mesocarp is fibrous, endocarp is thick and consists of interwoven fiber strands. Adaxial there are on the inside of a longitudinal elevation, which extends into the seed.

The seed is broadly ovate, adaxial furrowed with a basal navel ( hilum ). The Raphe branches rise from the bottom up. The endosperm is homogeneous or rarely furrowed ( ruminat ) and has a central cavity. The embryo sits basal.

Germination takes place on the fruit stand. The fruits are buoyant.

Distribution, locations and hazard

The distribution area of Nypa fruticans ranges from Sri Lanka and the Ganges delta on Southeast Asia to Australia, the Solomon Islands and the Ryukyu Islands. In the late 19th century, the kind in the Niger Delta has been introduced in West Africa, and has since spread to western Cameroon. In Panama and Trinidad on the kind now considered naturalized. Here they may have come across the ocean current from West Africa.

Nypa is found only in mangrove forests. They usually grow on soft mud and often forms extensive natural pure stands.

In New Guinea pollination was observed by Drosophilidae, generally a combination of insect and wind pollination anesthesia is assumed.

The IUCN leads Nypa fruticans as " least concern " ( safely ).

System

The genus Nypa stands within the family Arecaceae very isolated and alone, therefore, forms the subfamily Nypoideae. The genus is monotypic, it consists of a single species Nypa fruticans. Her sister group, the remaining Arecaceae without the Coryphoideae.

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

The genus name is derived " nipah " from, the Malay vernacular names for this taxon.

Fossil history

Nypa is fossil exceptionally well documented. Mostly fruits and pollen were found, other organs such as leaves, flowers or roots much less frequently. The sites are spread globally over the tropical and temperate zones, at least until the global climate deterioration at the end of the Middle Miocene.

The oldest finds are secured from the earliest Paleocene of Egypt and the Palaeocene of Brazil. Fossil pollen of the genus Spinizonocolpites, which is generally associated with Nypa is already known from the Maastrichtian of South America, Africa, India, and Malaysia's.

Reports on fruits of Nypa Burtini from the Aptian of Europe and Nypa fruits from the Upper Cretaceous of India be doubted.

Use

The ethno botanical Nipapalme is of some importance. The leaves are very important as a roofing material. Low is the meaning of the leaves for the production of cigarette paper or power floats. The inflorescences are tapped, from the obtained juice sugar and alcohol is obtained. The young endosperm is edible, usually it is cooked in syrup.

The Nypa holdings play an important role in the stabilization of the sludge in the estuaries and prevent coastal erosion.