Chamaedorea tenerrima
Chamaedorea (kahm-eh-DOR-eh-ah) tenerrima (teh-nehr-REE-mah) | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Guatemala, photo rarepalmseeds.com | |||||||
Scientific Classification | |||||||
| |||||||
Synonyms | |||||||
| |||||||
Native Continent | |||||||
| |||||||
Morphology | |||||||
| |||||||
Culture | |||||||
| |||||||
Survivability index | |||||||
| |||||||
Common names | |||||||
|
Contents
Habitat and Distribution
Chamaedorea tenerrima is endemic to GUATEMALA. Alta Verapaz. Baja Verapaz. Wet forest on the Atlantic slope; alt. 900-1,600 m (2950 to 5200 ft.) elevation.Description
One of the most striking and unusual leaf shapes, the largest pair of leaflets sits at the tip of the leaf, looking like a big, green butterfly. Up to another eight pairs are evenly spaced below that, angled towards the base of the leaf. All are somewhat undulate, forming a sparse crown atop a pencil-thin stem.
Habit: solitary, erect or decumbent, slender, to 1.5 m tall. Stem: 3-7 mm diam., smooth, green, ringed, internodes 2-5 cm long. Leaves: 4-5 per crown, spreading, pinnate, variously pinnate or infrequently bifid; sheath to 15 cm long, tubular; petiole 4-12 cm long, rugose, grayish; rachis 6-20 cm long, rugose, grayish; blade broadly obovate; pinnae 2-7 on each side of rachis, to 11 x 2.5 cm, strongly reflexed, sigmoid, lower margin produced in a prominent auricle below, outer margins minutely scarious-roughened, mucronulate and emarginate at tips of nerves and rather sharply toothed between them, a prominent midrib and a less conspicuous primary nerve on each side of this, apical pair to 15 x 8-10 cm, broadly flared, 3-8-nerved, all pinnae thin, green, concolorous; if bifid then blade incised apically to 1/2 its length with broadly spreading lobes, these to 19 x 14 cm wide at apex, ovate-oblong, shortly acuminate apically, rounded to subacute basally, outer margin toothed, 9-10 primary nerves on each side of rachis. Inflorescences: infrafoliar, erect to spreading; peduncles 8-30 cm long, slender; bracts 4-6, tubular, contracted or short-acuminate, upper reaching to rachis; rachises to 4 cm long. Staminate with up to 10 rachillae, these slender, small, green. Pistillate with 2-3 rachillae, these 3-10 cm long, very slender, recurved, downward-pointing and red in fruit. Flowers: Staminate known only in immature state, in loose spirals, depressed-globose, superficial; calyx short, lobed; petals valvate, spreading apically; stamens with anthers entire apically; pistillode short, columnar. Pistillate in ± dense spirals, 1-1.8 mm apart, 2.5-3 x 2.5-3 mm, ± globose, green; calyx 1 x 1.8-2 mm, moderately lobed, green, sepals connate and/or imbricate in basal 2/3, rounded apically; petals 2.5-3 x 2.5-3 mm, imbricate nearly to apex, broadly triangular, rounded to obtuse apically, only slightly erect; staminodes present; pistil 1.75 x 1.5 mm, depressed-globose-obovoid, flattened apically, stigma lobes short, sessile, clear-colored. Fruits: 6-7 mm in diam., globose, black, seated on superficial and . widely spaced rounded cushions; seeds globose; abortive carpels apparently adherent to perianth. (Hodel, D.R. 1992)/Palmweb. Editing by edric.
read more |
---|
The description is from Burret (1933a), Standley and Steyermark (1958), and supplemented from our collections. Unfortunately, good staminate material of C. tenerrima is not known. C. tenerrima is locally distributed in the wild, having been collected only on a few occasions in Alta Verapaz and Baja Verapaz. Although usually pinnate, plants will infrequently flower with bifid leaves. An outstanding and diagnostic feature of the pinnae are the auricles on the lower margins near the base that actually extend across the rachis on the underside. Cook (1947a, page 19) illustrated these appendages. Since Lehmann's holotype was destroyed and isotypes have not been found and C. tenerrima is such a distinct plant, it is appropriate to retypify this taxon here. Chamaedorea tenerrima easily has the most striking and unusual leaves in the genus. They are outstanding in the exceedingly broad terminal pair of pinnae, widely flaring with prominent, white, sigmoid nerves and toothed margins. Terminal pinnae are suggestive of a butterfly's large, anterior, flaring wings. Other pinnae are much smaller, strongly contracted at the base, and sharply reflexed on the rachis. C. tenerrima is not cultivated except for a few plants in the research collection in Los Angeles. (Hodel, D.R. 1992)/Palmweb. |
Culture
Even though not difficult to grow, and despite being highly coveted by collectors, C. tenerrima is exceedingly rare in cultivation because seeds have generally been unavailable.
Comments and Curiosities
Chamaedorea are dioecious, male, and female flowers, on separate plants.
Etymology: From the Latin, tenerrimus meaning most delicate or thin, apparently in reference to the habit. (Hodel, D.R. 1992)/Palmweb.
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).
Many Special Thanks to Ed Vaile for his long hours of tireless editing and numerous contributions.