Wallichia

Wallichia oblongifolia

Wallichia is a Native to Southeast Asia palm genus.

• 5.1 Notes and references

Features

The representatives are dwarf to medium-sized palm with pinnate leaves. They are single or multi-stemmed and only once blooming ( Hapaxanthie ). They are mostly monoecious getrenntgeschlechtig ( monoecious ), dioecious in the genus is questionable. The palm trees are stemless, shrub or tree structure. The tribe has contracted or elongated internodes. These are covered by the persistent fibrous leaf bases and leaf sheaths.

The chromosome number is 2n = 32

The leaves are spirally arranged or distichous, pinnate and induplicat. The leaf sheath often extends beyond the petiole and so forming a ligule. In time it decomposes to black fibers. The petiole is well developed. The leaflets are simply folded and linear- lanceolate. They are irregularly rhombic or deeply lobed, sometimes auriculate at the base. The upper leaf surface is glabrous, the lower surface densely covered with hairs and dandruff.

Inflorescences

The inflorescences are between the sheets ( interfoliär ) and always individually. They break through the leaf sheaths and arise in a basipetal order. They are branched once, and tends to vary unisexual: female, the distal or "terminal " standing, the male proximal that are often obscured by striking bracts.

The peduncle is usually hairy and brown scaly you. The cover sheet is small, zweikielig and only on the basis Roehrig. There are several bracts on the peduncle, which are arranged spirally and are substantially larger than the previous sheet. You are Roehrig at the base, tear and are usually densely covered with brown scales and hairs.

The inflorescence axis is usually longer than the peduncle. The bracts are very small. The axis bears numerous flower-bearing lateral axes ( Rachillae ), which are more slender and densely hairy. They carry in a spiral arrangement of small bracts, in whose armpits are the flowers.

Flowers

The male flowers are in pairs or individually. Sometimes they are accompanied by a rudiment of a female flower. The cup is Roehrig with three lobes or teeth. The receptaculum is extended between calyx and corolla and stem -like. The crown standing above the cup clear. It is Roehrig at the base and has three long tail. There are 3-15 stamens present. The stamens are joined at the base to a short-to- long column. Moreover, they are partially or completely verwachsten with the corolla tube, sometimes even with a part of the ears. The anthers are straight. A stamp rudiment is missing. The pollen is ellipsoidal and bisymmetrical. The germ is opening a distal sulcus. The longest axis measures 24 to 27 microns.

The female inflorescences are usually upright and carry less, but more powerful Rachillae. The flowers appear singly in a spiral arrangement. Each stands in the axil of a bract and is surrounded by three Brakteolen. The three sepals are low, rounded and imbricat. They are free or at most grown in the lowest range. The three petals are fused to about halfway, the free parts are valvat. There are 0-3 staminodes present. The ovary is spherical and two to dreifächrig with one ovule per subject. The scar is apical and conical. The ovules are hemianatrop.

Fruit and seeds

The fruit is ellipsoidal, small and reddish or purple color. It contains one or two, rarely three seeds. The scars radicals apically. The exocarp is smooth, the mesocarp is fleshy and filled with acicular crystals irritating. A endocarp is not differentiated. The seeds are basal. They are ellipsoidal or hemispherical. The endosperm is homogeneous. The embryo sits sideways.

Dissemination and locations

The representatives are present to China and south to the Thai peninsula from the Nepalese Himalayas and Upper Burma. They grow in the humid tropical forests from sea level to 2000 m above sea level. To the south, the species is rare, suggesting cooler and more seasonal climates on a Anpassungan. Most species are species of the undergrowth. Only Wallichia disticha is a medium sized tree that occurs in groups on the steep sandstone slopes of East Sikkim.

System

The genus Wallichia is placed in the subfamily Coryphoideae, Tribe Caryoteae within the family Arecaceae. The genus is probably monophyletic. Her sister group harangue.

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

• Wallichia caryotoides
• Wallichia disticha
• Wallichia gracilis
• Wallichia lidiae
• Wallichia marianneae
• Wallichia nana
• Wallichia oblongifolia
• Wallichia triandra

Type species is Wallichia caryotoides Roxb.

The genus was named after the Danish physician and botanist Nathanial Wallich ( 1786-1854 ). He was employed by the East India Company and later became superintendent of the Company Gardens in Calcutta.

Use

The leaves of Wallichia oblongifolia were used in the past to the ceiling of the roofs. From the trunk of Wallichia disticha Sago was recovered.

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. 304-306.