Ceroxylon sasaimae

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Ceroxylon (seh-ROKS-ih-lon)
sasaimae (sah-sah-EE-meh)
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Rural San Luis, Antioquia, Colombia.
Scientific Classification
Genus: Ceroxylon (seh-ROKS-ih-lon)
Species:
sasaimae (sah-sah-EE-meh)
Synonyms
None set.
Native Continent
America
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Morphology
Habit: Solitary
Leaf type: Pinnate
Culture
Survivability index
Common names
Palma de cera, palma real, palma de ramo (Cundinamarca, Colombia).

Habitat and Distribution

Colombia. Known until 2010 only from the eastern Cordillera in Colombia, in a small area
Rural San Luis, Antioquia, Colombia.
completely transformed to agricultural land, corresponding to humid premontane forest zone, at 1400-1800 m. However, in 2011 it was surprisingly discovered in the wild by Bernal & Manrique (in press), at 144 km northwest from the known locality, in a 2800 hectare forest patch, though it is unclear what percentage of this patch is actually covered by the population of C. sasaimae. The total known population from Sasaima has been estimated in no more than 100 adult individuals, that grow in the middle of coffee and fruit plantations, where regeneration is abundant but is removed during cultivation labors (Galeano & Bernal 2005). Only scattered individuals survive as seedlings and juveniles in the fallow land. Therefore, it is crucial to search this species in other forest remnants that meet its requirements to determine its actual population.

Description

Stem 8-15 (-20) m tall, 17-30 cm in diam., brown-greenish to grayish, covered by a very thin layer of wax. Leaves 16-26, in a very dense and nearly spherical crown; sheath 73-90 (-121) cm long, margins fibrous, abaxial surface covered with thick, light-brown, scaly indumentum; petiole 0-15 cm long, 4-8 wide at apex, adaxial surface glabrescent, margins acute, abaxially covered with deciduous, appressed, often eroded scales; rachis 206-300 cm long, adaxially flattened about 2/3 of its length, hastula-like projection 1-5 mm long, adaxially and abaxially glabrescent to scarcely covered with an indumentum of persistent but eroded, yellowish scales; pinnae 93-120 on each side, slightly irregularly arranged in groups of 1-8 pinnae, the groups separated by 3-5 cm, the pinnae straight and rigid through their length and inserted at slightly divergent angles, inequilateral by 3 cm at the apex, adaxial midrib with scale base scars or persistent, yellowish, minute bases, adaxial surface glabrous, glossy green and covered with a layer of clear translucent wax, abaxial midrib and surface covered with persistent, linear, translucent, cream-colored to brownish, scales; the basal, filiform pinnae 6-45 × 0.2-0.7 cm, basal pinnae (10th from base) 23-80 × 0.5-2.0 cm, middle pinnae 52-78 × 3.2-5.0 cm, apical pinnae 10-28 (-50) × 0.5-1.0 (-2.0) cm, sometimes, the 2-3 apical pinnae connate along margins.

Culture

Comments and Curiosities

Uses: The young leaves were cut in large quantities to be used as Palm Sunday during Easter (Galeano 1995). Currently, this practice is prohibited and people are growing palms from seeds to sell them for ornamental purposes.

Conservation: Because of its restricted distribution, the low number of adults and the deforestation of the habitat in the whole area, C. sasaimae was considered as Critically Endangered (CR), according to the UICN criteria (Galeano & Bernal 2005).



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).

John Dransfield in Phytotaxa 34 (2011)


Many Special Thanks to Ed Vaile for his long hours of tireless editing and numerous contributions.

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