Metroxylon paulcoxii

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Metroxylon paulcoxii
Not evaluated (IUCN 3.1) [1]
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Arecales
Family: Arecaceae
Genus: Metroxylon
Species:M. paulcoxii
Binomial name
Metroxylon paulcoxii
McClatchey

Metroxylon paulcoxii is a species of palm endemic to Samoa. It is reported there from the islands of 'Upolu and Savai'i. The species is named in honor of ethnobotanist Paul Alan Cox. [2] [3]

Arecaceae family of plants

The Arecaceae are a botanical family of perennial plants. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, trees and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree form are colloquially called palm trees. They are flowering plants, a family in the monocot order Arecales. Currently 181 genera with around 2600 species are known, most of them restricted to tropical and subtropical climates. Most palms are distinguished by their large, compound, evergreen leaves, known as fronds, arranged at the top of an unbranched stem. However, palms exhibit an enormous diversity in physical characteristics and inhabit nearly every type of habitat within their range, from rainforests to deserts.

Endemism Ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location or habitat

Endemism is the ecological state of a species being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation, country or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. The extreme opposite of endemism is cosmopolitan distribution. An alternative term for a species that is endemic is precinctive, which applies to species that are restricted to a defined geographical area.

Samoa country in Oceania

Samoa, officially the Independent State ofSamoa and, until 4 July 1997, known as Western Samoa, is a country consisting of two main islands, Savai'i and Upolu, and four smaller islands. The capital city is Apia. The Lapita people discovered and settled the Samoan Islands around 3,500 years ago. They developed a unique Samoan language and Samoan cultural identity.

Metroxylon paulcoxii can attain a height of 10 metres (33 ft), with a non-branching trunk up to 45 centimetres (18 in) in diameter. Leaves are pinnately compound, with spines on the sheaths, petioles, and leaf margins. Leaflets can number as many as 150, each up to 8 centimetres (3.1 in) wide and 100 centimetres (39 in) long. Inflorescences have second-order branching, with as many as 450 flowers per branch. Flowers are 5–10 millimetres (0.20–0.39 in) wide, with staminate (male), pistillate (female), and hermaphroditic flowers frequently present on the same plant. Fruits are pear-shaped, fibrous and corky, up to 7 centimetres (2.8 in) long. Seeds are spherical, up to 3.7 centimetres (1.5 in) in diameter. [2] [4] [5]

Trunk (botany) main wooden axis of a tree

In botany, the trunk is the stem and main wooden axis of a tree, which is an important feature in tree identification, and which often differs markedly from the bottom of the trunk to the top, depending on the species. The trunk is the most important part of the tree for timber production.

Pinnation type of compound leaf

Pinnation is the arrangement of feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis. Pinnation occurs in biological morphology, in crystals, such as some forms of ice or metal crystals, and in patterns of erosion or stream beds.

Inflorescence Term used in botany to describe a cluster of flowers

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed. The modifications can involve the length and the nature of the internodes and the phyllotaxis, as well as variations in the proportions, compressions, swellings, adnations, connations and reduction of main and secondary axes. Inflorescence can also be defined as the reproductive portion of a plant that bears a cluster of flowers in a specific pattern.

The species is similar to M. warburgii (also present in Samoa), but with shorter leaflets and with second-order branching in the inflorescence instead of third-order. [2]

<i>Metroxylon warburgii</i> species of plant

Metroxylon warburgii commonly called the natangura palm, is a species of flowering plant in the family Arecaceae. The specific epithet is in honor of Otto Warburg. The common name is from the Bislama name natanggura.

Related Research Articles

Sago starch extracted from tropical palm stems

Sago is a starch extracted from the spongy centre, or pith, of various tropical palm stems, especially that of Metroxylon sagu. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Moluccas, where it is called saksak, rabia and sagu. The largest supply of sago comes from Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia and Malaysia. Large quantities of sago are sent to Europe and North America for cooking purposes. It is traditionally cooked and eaten in various forms, such as rolled into balls, mixed with boiling water to form a glue-like paste (papeda), or as a pancake. Sago is often produced commercially in the form of "pearls". Sago pearls can be boiled with water or milk and sugar to make a sweet sago pudding. Sago pearls are similar in appearance to the pearled starches of other origin, e.g. cassava starch (tapioca) and potato starch, and they may be used interchangeably in some dishes.

<i>Bactris</i> genus of plants

Bactris is a genus of spiny palms which is native to the Mexico, South and Central America and the Caribbean. Most species are small trees about 2 metres tall, but some are large trees while others are shrubs with subterranean stems. They have simple or pinnately compound leaves and yellow, orange, red or purple-black fruit. The genus is most closely related to several other spiny palms—Acrocomia, Aiphanes, Astrocaryum and Desmoncus. The fruit of several species is edible, most notably B. gasipaes, while others are used medicinally or for construction.

<i>Corypha umbraculifera</i> species of plant

Corypha umbraculifera, the talipot palm, is a species of palm native to eastern and southern India and Sri Lanka. It is also grown in Cambodia, Myanmar, China, Thailand and the Andaman Islands. It is a flowering plant with the largest inflorescence in the world. It lives up to 60 years before bearing fruits and flowers. It dies shortly after.

Bactris campestris is a small spiny palm which grows in multi-stemmed clumps in savannas and low forests in northern South America from Colombia to the Guianas, Trinidad and Tobago, and northern Brazil.

<i>Laserpitium latifolium</i> species of plant

Laserpitium latifolium, common name broad-leaved sermountain, is an herbaceous perennial plant in the genus Laserpitium belonging to the family Apiaceae.

<i>Cordyline obtecta</i> species of plant

Cordyline obtecta is a widely branching monocot tree native to Norfolk Island, and to northern New Zealand. The species name obtecta derives from the Latin obtegere, alluding to the way the inflorescence barely protruded beyond the leaves in the plant first described.

<i>Metroxylon amicarum</i> species of plant

Metroxylon amicarum is a species of flowering plant in the family Arecaceae, endemic to the Caroline Islands. It was named for the Friendly Islands, now Tonga, from where it was first thought to have descended. It is the only species in the Metroxylon genus which is not hapaxanthic.

<i>Phoenix sylvestris</i> species of plant

Phoenix sylvestris also known as silver date palm, Indian date, sugar date palm or wild date palm, is a species of flowering plant in the palm family native to southern Pakistan, most of India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma and Bangladesh. It is also reportedly naturalized in Mauritius, the Chagos Archipelago, Puerto Rico and the Leeward Islands. Growing in plains and scrubland up to 1300 m above sea level, the fruit from this palm species is used to make wine and jelly. The sap is tapped and drunk fresh or fermented into toddy. The fresh sap is boiled to make palm jaggery in West Bengal state of India and Bangladesh.

<i>Metroxylon sagu</i> species of plant

Metroxylon sagu, the true sago palm, is a species of palm in the genus Metroxylon, native to tropical southeastern Asia, namely Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and possibly also the Philippines. It is also naturalised in Thailand, in the Indonesian islands of Java, Kalimantan, Sumatra, and in the Solomon Islands.

<i>Actinorhytis</i> species of plant

Actinorhytis is a monotypic genus of flowering plant in the palm family found in Oceania and southeast Asia. The lone species, Actinorhytis calapparia is a rain forest inhabitant and has the largest fruit of any palm in the Iguanurinae. The genus name is from two Greek words meaning 'ray' and 'fold' which describe the endosperm of the seed.

Retispatha is a rare, monotypic genus of flowering plant in the palm family endemic to Borneo, where the sole species, Retispatha dumetosa, is known as wi tebu bruang or "the bear's sugar cane". The name combines Latin and Greek words meaning "network" and "spathe", and the species epithet means "bushy". While classified with other rattans, they retain only superficial climbing organs; they sprawl and lean but are not true climbers.

<i>Sabal domingensis</i> species of plant

Sabal domingensis, the Hispaniola palmetto, is a species of palm which is native to Hispaniola and Cuba.

<i>Sabal mauritiiformis</i> species of plant

Sabal mauritiiformis is a species of palm which is ranges from Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Venezuela and Trinidad.

<i>Thrinax excelsa</i> species of plant

Thrinax excelsa, commonly known as broad thatch, is a species of palm which is endemic to Jamaica.

<i>Lupinus cervinus</i> species of plant

Lupinus cervinus is a species of lupine known by the common name Santa Lucia lupine. It is endemic to the Santa Lucia Mountains in the Central Coast Ranges in California, where it is an uncommon member of the flora in the mountain forests. This is a hairy gray-green perennial herb growing up to 30–70 centimetres (12–28 in) tall. The erect stem is surrounded by clusters of spreading leaves. Each palmate leaf is made up of 4 to 8 leaflets up to 8 centimetres (3.1 in) long and 3 centimetres (1.2 in) wide, which is wider than the leaflets of most lupines. The inflorescence bears many flowers, sometimes in whorls, each between 1 centimetre (0.39 in) and 2 centimetres (0.79 in) long. The flower is often bright pink, but may be shades of blue to nearly white. There is often a yellow patch on the banner. The fruit is a hairy legume pod up to 6 centimetres (2.4 in) long.

Aiphanes deltoidea, known as shicashic in Peru, is a species of palm which is native to northeastern South America.

Aiphanes bicornis is a species of small, pinnately leaved palm which is endemic to Ecuador. First described in 2004 and known from only two locations, the species name refers to the deeply notched tips of its leaflets, which resemble a pair of horns.

<i>Metroxylon vitiense</i> species of plant

Metroxylon vitiense is a species of flowering plant in the family Arecaceae, endemic to the islands of Fiji, Ovalau, and Vanua Levu in Fiji. There is only one confirmed occurrence of M. vitiense on Vanua Levu, just outside Savusavu. Despite it being considered a threatened species by the IUCN, as of February 2013 M. vitiense was still unprotected by Fijian regulations and international legislation. It has also been reported from the nearby islands of Wallis and Futuna.

<i>Ceroxylon vogelianum</i> species of plant

Ceroxylon vogelianum, is a palm native to the Andes from Venezuela south to Peru in humid montane forest, at an elevation of 1900 – 2900 meters.

References

  1. ↑ "Metroxylon paulcoxii". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2017. Retrieved 23 September 2017. This taxon has not yet been assessed for the IUCN Red List, but is in the Catalogue of Life: Metroxylon paulcoxii McClatchey
  2. 1 2 3 McClatchey, Will. 1998. A new species of Metroxylon (Arecaceae) from Western Samoa. Novon 8:252-258.
  3. ↑ Govaerts, R. & Dransfield, J. (2005). World Checklist of Palms: 1-223. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  4. ↑ McClatchey, W, HI Manner, CR Elevitch. April 2006, ver. 2.1. Species profiles for Pacific Island Agroforestry
  5. ↑ Tropical Species Database
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