Podococcus

Podococcus is a native to the rainforests of West Africa palm genus. She is the only member of the tribe Podococceae.

• 4.1 Notes and references

Features

The representatives are slender, upright, non-reinforced palm with pinnate leaves. They grow in groups. They are monoecious and bloom more than once. The stem is erect, slender, reed -like, or it is underground. He has covered me reddish- brown, fibrous leaf bases, later also provided by these free and with rings of leaf scars. At the base of the stem axillary stolons are present that spread horizontally, eventually grow upright, forming roots and so form new shoots. It can also be formed roots with pneumatophores.

The chromosome number is unknown.

A palm tree is a few, pinnate leaves. The first leaves on new shoots are undivided, elliptical, with fiederig standing ribs, serrated edge and slightly two- ( bifidem ) end. The leaf sheath is Roehrig and tears over the petiole with the edges fibrous. The petiole is very slim at the top furrowed slightly rounded at the bottom, covered with point-like scales and a falling hair. The rachis is similar to the petiole, but is longer, is the end of thin, ranging also through the terminal, often bifid Endfiederchen through.

The leaflets are folded rhombic and easy. The lower half of each leaflet is wedge-shaped with smooth boundary, the upper half is triangular with doubly serrated margins. From the leaflet base from going five major leaf veins, a midrib is not formed. The leaf blade is bald on top, sitting at the bottom lean, tannic hairs with thickened base.

Inflorescences

The inflorescences are individually between sheets ( interfoliar ). You are spike- shaped, initially upright, hanging fruit to maturity. You are protandrous. The peduncle is very slim and has falling hairs. The cover sheet sits basal and Roehrig, zweikielig and disintegrates into long fibers. There are two to three bracts on the inflorescence stalk that target at long intervals on the cover page. You are Roehrig and disintegrate as the cover page. The inflorescence axis is approximately the same length or longer than the stem and contributes in a spiral arrangement of flowers triads, in the distal region paired or single male flowers. The flowers are in mines. The bracts, which are the bracts of the triads, are only available as a slightly raised bottom edges of the pits. The Brakteolen the flowers are membranous, irregularly and usually pointed.

Flowers

The male flowers are usually adaxial to the female. The three sepals are free, easy- keeled, their tops are irregular or rounded, its base is imbricat. The three petals are valvat and about twice as long as the sepals. At flowering, they are connected to about two-thirds of its length at a fixed receptaculum, which is about as long as the flowers pit. The free corolla lobes protrude into the open and spread apart. The six stamens are in two circles, the outer opposite the sepals and shorter than the inner antepetalen stamens. The filaments are commended shaped, rather short and curved inwards. The anther are short, dorsifix near the base and open latrors itself. The connectives are rich in tannin. The stamp rudiment is short and three-lobed. The pollen is ellipsoidal with mild to significant asymmetry. The germ is opening a distal sulcus. The longest axis measures 27 to 32 microns.

The female flowers are symmetrical. The three sepals are free, and irregular, and about half as long as the petals. The petals are fused together in the lower third to half and connected to a fixed receptaculum, which is as long as the flowers in the pit about. The ends of the petals are in bud imbricat, spread to blossom. The six staminodes are very small. The gynoecium is ovoid, dreifächrig with three ovules or two abortive subjects. A stylus is not formed. The three stigmas are short and curved back to blossom. The ovules are pendulous.

Fruit and seeds

The fruits are long, ellipsoidal or ellipsoidal lobes. They are often curved. Their color is bright orange. They contain from one to three seeds. The scar remains standing sideways at dreisamigen fruits centrally, in one and zweisamigen. The base of the fruit is short-stalked, the lobes develop horizontally to the floral axis. The exocarp is thin, smooth and rather coriaceous, the mesocarp is gelatin - like and has an inner layer of fibers. The endocarp is crusty. The seed is ellipsoidal, sitting basal, and has a basal hilum. The branch branches anastomose the raphe. The endosperm is homogeneous. The embryo set on wide apart near the center.

Dissemination and locations

The two types of Podococcus come into West Africa from Nigeria to Gabon before, the area of the Niger Delta extends almost to the Congo River. They grow in the lowland rain forest and only come up to 200 km from the coast. The distribution overlaps largely with the spread of the Biafran forest and closely related companies. The palm trees are missing at sites that were formerly cultivated and also close roads. They usually grow on ferrallitischen Latosol floors, but are not limited to this soil type.

System

The genus Podococcus is placed in the subfamily within the family Arecaceae Arecoideae alone forms the tribe Podococceae. The monophyly has not been studied. The Podococceae form a clade together with the Oranieae and Sclerospermeae.

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

• Podococcus acaulis
• Podococcus barteri

Podococcus was first described by G. Mann and Hermann Wendland 1864 type species is Podococcus barteri. The genus name is derived from the ancient Greek words for foot and seeds or berries, a reference to the characteristic stalked fruit.

The Tribe Podococceae was erected in 1986 by John Dransfield and Natalie Uhl.

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. 383-386.