Satakentia liukiuensis

Satakentia (sah-tah-kehn-TEE-ah) liukiuensis (lee-oo-kee-oo-EHN-sis)
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Florida. Photo by Dr. John Dransfield, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Palmweb.
Scientific Classification
Genus: Satakentia (sah-tah-kehn-TEE-ah) Species: liukiuensis (lee-oo-kee-oo-EHN-sis)
Synonyms
Old name; Gulubia liukiuensis
Native Continent
Asia
Morphology
Habit: Solitary Leaf type: Pinnate
Culture
Survivability index
Common names
Noyashi and yaeyama-yashi. Satake Palm

Habitat and Distribution

Nansei-shoto. A single species on Ishigaki Island (Yonehara) and Iriomote Island (Hoshitate, Nakam River,Sonai, and Yoeyama Group of the Ryukyus). Growing on hillslopes or more rarely near the sea; often growing in densemore-or-less even-aged stands.

Satakentia liukiuensis There are two main wild populations, the main population on Ishigaki Jima,

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Florida. Photo by Dr. John Dransfield, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Palmweb.

and a much smaller population on Iriomote Jima with a few individule trees scattered across Iriomote. Widely planted as a street tree in cities further north, notably Naha on Okinawa.

Description

Moderate, solitary, unarmed, pleonanthic, monoecious palm. Stem erect, usually enlarged and with a mass of adventitious roots at the base, columnar above, green to brown, longitudinally striate, ringed with close leaf scars. Leaves pinnate, spreading; sheaths tubular, forming a prominent crownshaft and with a prominent chartaceous ligule; petiole short, adaxially channelled with a central ridge, abaxially rounded; rachis elongate, flattened adaxially, rounded abaxially, tomentose; leaflets regularly arranged, acute, single-fold, midrib evident abaxially, marginal nerves thickened, usually 2(–3) secondary ribs, and numerous tertiary veins on each side, glabrous adaxially, ramenta present abaxially near the base of the midrib, transverse veinlets not evident. Inflorescences infrafoliar, densely and minutely stellate-tometose, branched to 2 orders basally, to 1 order distally; peduncle short, stout; prophyll tubular, terete, 2-keeled laterally, briefly beaked, much shorter than the peduncular bracts; first peduncular bract, complete, tubular, thick, woody, terete, beaked, enclosing a second almost complete and similar peduncular bract, both splitting abaxially and caducous at anthesis, a prominent but much shorter third and sometimes fourth, chartaceous incomplete peduncular bract also developed; rachis about as long as the peduncle, tapering, densely tomentose, angled, bearing spirally inserted, rather large, acute bracts subtending basal branches and smaller rounded bracts subtending distal branches; rachillae elongate, rather stout, stiff, bearing spirally arranged, low, rounded bracts subtending flowers borne in triads of 2 staminate and 1 pistillate in lower 1/4 to 1/3 of the rachillae, paired to solitary staminate flowers distally. Staminate flowers nearly symmetrical; sepals 3, distinct, imbricate, ± rounded; petals 3, distinct, valvate, more than twice as long as the sepals; stamens 6, filaments distinct, awl-shaped, inflexed at the apex in bud, anthers oblong in outline, latrorse; pistillode as long as the stamens, cylindrical, with obliquely subcapitate apex. Pollen ellipsoidal asymmetric; aperture a distal sulcus; ectexine tectate, perforate, aperture margin similar; infratectum columellate; longest axis 43–45 µm [1/1]. Pistillate flowers ovoid; sepals 3, distinct, broadly imbricate; petals 3, distinct, imbricate, with shortly valvate apices; staminodes 3, tooth-like, on one side of the gynoecium; gynoecium ovoid, unilocular, uniovulate, stigmas 3, recurved at anthesis, ovule pendulous, anatropous. Fruit ovoid-ellipsoidal with eccentrically apical stigmatic remains; epicarp smooth but drying longitudinally lines, mesocarp with numerous flat longitudinal fibres in thin flesh and some red-brown stone cells near the apex, endocarp thin, fragile, operculate at the base of the elongate hilar seam, not adherent to the seed. Seed ellipsoidal, hilum elongate, raphe branches anastomosing, endosperm homogeneous; embryo basal. Germination adjacent-ligular; eophyll bifid. Cytology not studied. (J. Dransfield & N. Uhl & C. Asmussen & W.J. Baker & M. Harley & C. Lewis, Genera Palmarum. The evolution and classification of palms. 2008)/Palmweb.

Pintaud and Setoguchi (1999) were the first torecognise that the inflorescence of Satakentia has twopeduncular bracts, a character it shares with Carpoxylon butnot with Neoveitchia. However, the inflorescences and fruit ofthe three genera are similar. Moderate solitary pinnate-leaved palm from the Ryukyu Islands in southern Japan, remarkable for the two large peduncular bracts and small fruit. (J. Dransfield & N. Uhl & C. Asmussen & W.J. Baker & M. Harley & C. Lewis, Genera Palmarum. The evolution and classification of palms. 2008)/Palmweb.

A solitary, tall, salt-tolerant, moderately slow growing, monoecious, forest emergent, brown coloured crownshaft palm. Rare in cultivation, vulnerable in the wild. It has a smooth, grey-brown trunk, 20 m. (66 ft.) tall, 30.5 cm. (12 inch) diameter with spaced ring leaf scars, and large segmented, pinnate (feather) leaves, 3 m. (10 ft.) long, 0.9 m. (3 ft.) wide, dark green above and, light green beneath. Editing by edric.

Stems are tall and solitary, ringed with prominent leaf scars, and usually have a mass of adventitious roots at the base. Leaves pinnate, 10-14 in number, and dead leaves fall cleanly from the stem. leaf sheaths are closed and form a prominent, brown or reddish green crownshaft. Petioles are usually very short. Leaflets are numerous, regularly arranged, one-veined, lanceolate, and spread horizontally in the same plane. Inflorescences are branched to two orders, and are borne below the crownshaft. They are covered initially by deciduous bracts - a prophyll and two peduncular bracts. Flowering branches are densely hairy. Flowers are unisexual and are arranged in trees or a central female and two lateral male flowers. Fruits are small, ovoid or ellipsoid, black, and one-seeded. The endosperm is homogeneous, germination is adjacent, and the seedling leaf is bifid.

Culture

Satakentia liukiuensis can survive freezing temperatures to about -3.8°C (25°F), but freezing is best avoided. This species naturally occurs on islands in moist montane forest, and is heavily effected by the surrounding sea temperatures, which are constant and often form sea mist and cloud. In this type of natural environment temperature fluctuations are slight, and this palm prefers a constantly mild climate with little temperature difference between day & night, and Summer & Winter. Under extreme freezing conditions we recommend you keep this palm as dry as possible, and well wrapped up.

Comments and Curiosities

This is a monotypic genus.

Etymology: Honoring Toshihiko Satake (1910–1998), Japanese industrialist and palm hobbyist, by combining his name with the generic name Kentia, named for William Kent (1779 –1827), one-time curator of the botanic gardens at Buitenzorg, Java (now Kebun Raya Bogor).

Uses: Cultivated as an ornamental. The ‘cabbage’ is said to havebeen eaten during World War II.

Trunks have a mass of adventitious roots at the base, and trunks can grow to 20 m.tall, brownish/grey, and solitary, topped with a prominent, brown or reddish green crownshaft, which is very distinguishable. With large green pinnate leaves, 3 m. long. The inflorescence's are also distinctive, which are branched to two orders, and are borne below the crownshaft.

Satakentia contains only one species, which is endemic to Japan in the far south of the Ryukyu Islands in the islands of Ishigaki Jima and Iriomote Jima. This genus was named by Harold Moore for Toshihiko Satake, who had noticed it was something special. There is now a museum built to honor Toshihiko Satake within the main population of the palms on Ishigaki Jima. There are two main wild populations, the main population on Ishigaki Jima, and a much smaller population on Iriomote Jima with a few individual trees scattered across Iriomote. The Iriomote trees are inaccessible, as they grow in a cemetery, or the isolated trees are remote in the hills.