Roystonea regia

Royal Palm ( Roystonea regia)

The royal palm ( Roystonea regia ) is a native to the Caribbean Plant of the palm family ( Arecaceae ). It is a common ornamental plant in tropical and subtropical areas.

Features

The stem is up to 20 m, rarely up to 30 m high with a diameter from 37 to 57.5 cm, the surface is gray-white. The crown consists of about 15 leaves. The lower leaves hang down below the horizontal. The crown shaft is strikingly green, as with all members of the genus, and about 2 m long. A petiole is missing. The rachis is about 4 meters long. The middle leaflets are 63-119 cm long and 2.5 to 4.6 cm wide.

The inflorescence is about 1 m long and as wide. The cover sheet is approximately 36 cm long and 7.3 cm wide, the bracts on the inflorescence stem is 0.8 to 1.6 m long and 9.8 up to 13 cm wide, broadest in the middle of it. The side branches of the inflorescence are 11-31 cm long and have a diameter 0.9 to 2.3 cm. The male flowers are white. Sepals are triangular, 0.8 to 1.4 mm long and 0.9 to 2 mm wide. The petals are elliptical to oval 2.5 to 6.4 mm long and 2.2 to 3.5 mm wide. There are 6 to 9 stamens, which are 3.2 to 7.5 mm long. The stamens are commended shaped and 2.3 to 5.6 mm long, the anthers, 2.4 to 4.5 mm long. The stamp rudiment is very small. The female flowers are also white, the sepals are kidney-shaped, 0.7 to 1.8 mm long and 1.8 to 3.4 mm wide. The petals are oval and 2.7 to 3.7 mm long. The staminodes are sechslappig 1.3 to 2.8 mm long and grow together in the lower part. The gynoecium is 1.1 to 3.5 mm long with a diameter 0.9 to 2.6 mm.

The fruits are globose to ellipsoidal and dorsiventrally somewhat compressed. They are 8.9 to 15.1 mm long, dorsiventrally 6.9 to 11.2 mm thick and 7 to 10.9 mm wide. The exocarp is purple - black, the scars remaining flat. The endocarp is ellipsoidal and 7.5 to 11.1 mm long.

Dissemination and locations

The king palm grows in the hills and valleys of Cuba. In Florida it is found in the counties of Collier, Dade and Monroe and grows here on the Hammocks of the Everglades, small elevations of limestone. Other natural occurrences are located on the Yucatan Peninsula and the Gulf Coast of Mexico, Belize and Honduras, as well as the Cayman Islands, possibly Bahamas. The species is widely planted in the tropics and subtropics worldwide and wild bürgert easy or a light. Such derived from cultured stocks populations were often considered for indigenous, as in Panama, Costa Rica or Guyana.

System

The nomenclature of Roystonea regia is complicated by a number of synonyms have been published. Roystonea regia was first described by Kunth 1816 as Oreodoxa regia, in the first volume edited by Humboldt, Bonpland and Kunth Nova genera et species plantarum. The species was transferred in 1900 by OF Cook in the new genus Roystonea.

The populations in Florida have long been known as a separate species Roystonea elata. This name goes back to W. Bartram, who in 1791 described a Palma elata. According to the rules of nomenclature this name would have priority but it or its basionym Oreodoxa regia against Palma elata was preserved due to the wide distribution of the name Roystonea regia.

Use

In Cuba, the Royal Palm for timber, the leaves are used for thatching and the fruits as pig feed. Worldwide in tropical and subtropical regions it is planted as an ornamental plant. Considered the most widely cultivated ornamental palm.

Documents

• Scott Zona: Roystonea ( Arecaceae: Arecoideae ). Flora Neotropica, Volume 71, 1996, pp. 1-35. ( JSTOR )