Roystonea dunlapiana
Roystonea (roy-ston-EH-ah) dunlapiana (duhn-lahp'-ee-AHN-ah) | |||||||
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Estuary of Rio Garcia, Honduras. Sep 1992. from slide. Photo by Dr. Scott Zona. | |||||||
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Contents
Habitat and Distribution
Roystonea dunlapiana is found in; Honduras, Mexico Southeast, and Nicaragua. A palm of humid forest in the Atlantic lowlands, scattered in estuaries and coastal swamps from Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua. It likely occurs in Belize, but no collections from that country have been seen.Description
Trunk gray-white, to 20 m tall, about 38 cm in diam. Leaves about 15, lowest leaves hanging below the horizontal; crownshaft about 2 m long; rachis about 4 m long, middle segments 78-88 cm long and 2.5-6.5 cm wide. Inflorescence about 1 m long and 1 m wide; pro-phyll not seen; peduncular bract about 2 m long, narrowly acuminate, as long as the crownshaft, widest in the middle; rachillae about 37 cm long and 1-1.3 mm in diam., stiff. Staminate flowers white; sepals triangular, about 1 mm long and 0.8-1.8 mm wide; petals elliptical to ovate, 2.9-5.6 mm long and 2.1-2.4 mm wide; stamens 6, about 3.5 mm long; filaments awl-shaped, 2.4-4.8 mm long; anthers 1.8-2.7 mm long, purplish; pistillode minute. Pistillate flowers 1.5-3.5 per cm, not seen. Fruits obovoid and gibbous, 12-14.7 mm long, 7.5-9.8 mm dorsiventral thickness, and 7.1-9.5 mm wide; epicarp purplish black stigmatic scar plain; endocarp ellipsoid, 11-13.6 mm long, 6.5-8.2 mm dorsiventral thickness, and 6.5-7.4 mm wide; seed ellipsoid, 7.3-10.3 mm long, 4.5-5.8 mm dorsiventral thickness, and 5.1-6 mm wide; raphe circular. Eophyll linear-lanceolate, exstipitate, weakly costate. (Zona S.)/Palmweb. Editing by edric.
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In the original description of R. dunlapiana, Allen (1952) mentioned several characteristics that set it apart from what he thought was the most similar species, R. altissima of Jamaica: greater number of longer leaves, scaly midvein of the leaf segment, the "unique truncation" of the leaf segments, wider spacing of the flowers, and "other characters." Of these characteristics, truncate leaf segment apices would indeed be remarkable and highly distinctive for a species of Roystonea. Allen stated in the description of R. dunlapiana that truncate apices were found only in segments taken from the midpor-tion of the leaf, that basal and terminal segments had acute bifid apices typical for Roystonea. He noted that the middle segments appeared "almost as though they had been bitten off." I have been unable to confirm the presence of truncate apices in this species, even from the type specimen. Since no truncate apices have been found anywhere on the leaves of this species, or any species of Roystonea, one wonders if, in fact, Allen had observed segments damaged by herbivores.?The above description is based on very few collections; adequate material, especially of the pistillate flowers, is still lacking. (Zona S.)/Palmweb. |
Culture
Much the same as for other Royals. Cold Hardiness Zone: 10a
Comments and Curiosities
Uses: Leaves and leaf sheaths are used for thatching, and The wood is used for construction.
Conservation: IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 1998: Endangered B1+2c ver 2.3 - Occurs in Honduras where it is considered to be Endangered, also recorded in south-east Mexico.
External Links
References
Phonetic spelling of Latin names by edric.
Special thanks to Geoff Stein, (Palmbob) for his hundreds of photos.
Special thanks to Palmweb.org, Dr. John Dransfield, Dr. Bill Baker & team, for their volumes of information and photos.
Glossary of Palm Terms; Based on the glossary in Dransfield, J., N.W. Uhl, C.B. Asmussen-Lange, W.J. Baker, M.M. Harley & C.E. Lewis. 2008. Genera Palmarum - Evolution and Classification of the Palms. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. All images copyright of the artists and photographers (see images for credits).
Zona S.Roystonea.(Arecaceae: Arecoideae).
Many Special Thanks to Ed Vaile for his long hours of tireless editing and numerous contributions.