Coccothrinax salvatoris loricata

Interesting Facts

Description

Genus Coccothrinax

Plants small to moderate. Stems solitary or occasionally caespitose , erect , slender, at first covered with leaf sheaths . Leaves: sheath fibers soft, netlike, eventually sloughing off to reveal smooth to fissured stem; petiole not split at base , unarmed ; abaxial hastula a low ridge or absent; adaxial hastula a crescent-shaped ridge to semi-cylindric excrescence ; blade palmate; plication induplicatee (V-shaped) ; segments lanceolate, basally connate ; cross veins obscure [conspicuous ]. Inflores cences interfoliar, downcurved [long and arching ], not extending beyond leaves, with 2 orders of branching; prophyll short, peduncular bracts several, sterile , tubular , distally expanded, silky-pubescent; primary branches subtended by smaller peduncular bracts. Flowers bisexual , borne singly along rachillae, short-pedicellate; perianth 1-seriate, shallowly cupulate , lobes 5--7, apiculate ; stamens 7--12; filaments acute; anthers dorsifixed , twisted when dry; pistils 1, 1-carpellate, glabrous ; style slender; stigma funnelform . Fruits globose ; stigmatic scar apical; exocarp purplish, smooth, slightly warty when dry; mesocarp fleshy ; endocarp membranaceous . Seeds globose, irregularly brain-shaped; endosperm homogeneous , bony; embryo apical [superior]; eophyll undivided, lanceolate.

Species 14--50 (1 in the flora ) : Caribbean Basin .

Coccothrinax shares a similar floral morphology with Thrinax, and like Thrinax it is wind pollinated. Fruits of C. argentata are one of the most important foods of Florida€™s Key deer (W. D. Klimstra and A. L. Dooley 1990), but seeds are not excreted intact (W. D. Klimstra, pers. comm. ) .

Coccothrinax includes a great number of species with ornamental potential, and many of the cultivated ones are discussed by C. E. Nauman and R. W. Sanders (1991) . Because of their generally small and slender stature and their predictable growth form , they make elegant horticultural subjects.

Theis genus is in dire need of systematic study.[1]

Taxonomy

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Domain: Eukaryota () - Whittaker & Margulis,1978 - eukaryotes
- Kingdom: Plantae () - Haeckel, 1866 - Plants
  - Subkingdom: Viridaeplantae () - Cavalier-Smith, 1981
    - Phylum: Tracheophyta () - Sinnott, 1935 ex Cavalier-Smith, 1998 - Vascular Plants
      - Subphylum: Euphyllophytina () - (Auct.) Cavalier-Smith, 1998
        Infraphylum: Angiospermae () - Auct.
        Class: Spermatopsida () - Brongniart, 1843
        Subclass: Arecidae () - Takhtajan, 1967
        Superorder: Arecanae () - Takhtajan, 1967
        Order: Arecales () - Bromhead, 1840
        Family: Palmae () - A.L. de Jussieu, 1789, nom. cons., nom. alt.
        Subfamily: Coryphoideae ()
        Tribe: Cryosophileae ()
        Genus: Coccothrinax () - Sargent, 1899 - Silver palm [Greek coccos, berry, and thrinax, trident or winnowing fork]
        Subgenus: nom ()
        Specific epithet: salvatoris - (León) Borhidi & O.Muñiz
        Subspecies: loricata
        Botanical name: - Coccothrinax salvatoris loricata (León) Borhidi & O.Muñiz