Trithrinax

Trithrinax acanthocoma

Trithrinax is a native to South America Palm genus.

Features

The representatives are single -stemmed or multi-stemmed, hermaphrodite fan palms. They are reinforced and bloom more than once. The stem is erect and covered with the perennial, fibrous, sometimes spiny leaf sheaths. The leaves are fan-shaped, induplicat (v- shaped) folded and dry up on the plant. The leaf sheath is Roehrig and dries to a fibrous, partly lignified network; the upper fibers being transformed into stiff spines. The leaf blade is fan-shaped to almost circular, it is not or only slightly costapalmat ( petiole extends into the leaf blade into it ). The leaf blade is divided into numerous, simple folded, stiff segments. The upper leaf surface is bare, the underside is covered with wax and hairy.

The inflorescence is single and between the sheets. He is rather short to medium in size, cream - colored and branched three times. The peduncle is short. The sepals are fused to about half their length. There are two, three or four carpels. Stamens have long free filaments, which are more than twice as long as the crown.

The fruit is one seed, white and spherical. The scars radical apical who did not develop carpels are basally. The exocarp is smooth, the mesocarp fleshy and endocarp is thin and Paper n. The seed is free, spherical and has a circular hilum ( scar ).

The chromosome number is 2n = 36

Dissemination and locations

Trithrinax comes in South America in the countries of Bolivia, in the western tropical and southern Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. Trithinax schizophylla grows in sandy marshes and on river banks, the other species on dry sites.

System

The genus Trithrinax is placed in the subfamily Coryphoideae, Tribe Cryosophileae within the family Arecaceae. Their systematic position within the tribe is not yet finally resolved.

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

• Trithrinax acanthocoma
• Trithrinax brasiliensis
• Trithrinax campestris
• Trithrinax schizophylla

The genus name Trithrinax consists of the number of tri = three and the genus name Thrinax together. One explanation of the name has not been the first to describe Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius.

Fossil flowers are known from the amber of the Dominican Republic. You can be chronologically ordered into middle Eocene into middle Miocene and were described as Trithrinax dominicana.

Use

The logs are used as a timber, the leaves for thatching. The leaf sheaths were used in the past as a filter. The fruits are eaten fresh or fermented. The seeds can be used as an oil supplier. Trithrinax campestris is widely planted as an ornamental plant, it is cold and dry tolerant.

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. 222f.