Plectocomiopsis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search

Plectocomiopsis

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Plantae

Clade: Tracheophytes

Clade: Angiosperms

Clade: Monocots

Clade: Commelinids

Order: Arecales

Family: Arecaceae

Subfamily: Calamoideae

Tribe: Calameae

Genus: Plectocomiopsis
Becc.[1]

Species

 Plectocomiopsis
corneri Furtado
 Plectocomiopsis  ge
miniflora (Griff.)
Becc.

 Plectocomiopsis
 mira J.Dransf.
 Plectocomiopsis
songthanhensis A.J.H
end. & N.Q.Dung

 Plectocomiopsis
triquetra (Becc.)
J.Dransf.

 Plectocomiopsis
wrayi Becc.

Plectocomiopsis is a dioecious genus of flowering plant in the palm family found

in Indochina, Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra.[2] Hapaxanthic and armed with spines, they
are a climbing rattan, closely related to the Myrialepis palms.[3] The name is Greek for
"similar to Plectocomia", another close relative.[4]

Contents

 1Description
 2Distribution and habitat
 3Cultivation and uses
 4References
 5External links

Description[edit]
The stems are small, densely clustering, spiny, and high climbing with long internodes
and conspicuous scars. Young leaves are undivided or with few segments, in maturity
becoming pinnate and cirrate with a tubular, unarmed or sparsely armed, scaly leaf
sheath. Ocreas present, entire or becoming tattered. The petiole, when present, and the
proximal end of the rachis are deeply channeled and spiny; the cirrus and distal end of
the rachis are armed with regularly arranged reflexed climbing spines. The single fold,
lanceolate leaflets may be few to numerous, usually with armed margins and caducous
scales, with conspicuous midribs and transverse veinlets.
The inflorescence is produced at the top of the stem amongst the most distal, often
reduced leaves, axis adnate to the internode and emerging from the leaf sheath mouth.
The peduncle is short, the prophyll is tubular and two-keeled, peduncular bracts usually
absent, and the rachis is much longer than the peduncle. The rachis bracts are tubular
and more or less distichous, each subtending a horizontal or pendulous first order
branch which features basal, tubular bracts with triangular limbs carrying
monopodial flower clusters. In P. corneri the inflorescence is branched to three orders
instead of two, with flowers borne on the axes of all orders.
The male flowers are arranged in clusters of up to 32, each flower held in a cuplike
rachilla bract with a two-keeled bracteole. The calyx is thick, leathery and tubular, with
three lobes, and abaxially covered in scaly trichomes; the corolla is similar, with two
distal splits forming three triangle shaped lobes, also bearing scales. The six stamens
are laterally fused forming a tube which is tipped by six free, reflexed filaments with
short, oblong anthers. The pollen is discate and elliptic with tectate exine; pistillode
minute.[3]
Female flowers are usually borne in clusters of two to four but may be solitary, and, like
the male's, are carried in cuplike bracts with two-keeled bracteoles, with the occasional
barely developed second bracteole. The calyx is also thick and leathery, thrice lobed
and scaly, usually persistent into fruit; corolla leathery, scaly, with three lobes.
The staminodial ring bears six short lobes and sagging, empty anthers; gynoecium egg-
shaped to cylindrical, the apical stigmas becoming scaly nearing antithesis. Three
incomplete locules are present, each bearing one antropous, basally attached ovule.
The fruit has one, rarely two seeds, covered in persistent perianth whorls, and stigmatic
apical remains. The epicarp is matted in irregular vertical rows of reflexed scales, with a
thin mesocarp and an undifferentiated endocarp. The seed is basally attached,
spherical, usually depressed, with a thick sarcoesta, a homogeneous endosperm and a
basal embryo.[3]

Distribution and habitat[edit]

Plectocomiopsis triquetra and P. wrayi are low land peat swamp forest inhabitants, the
former in Borneo, the latter in Malaysia. P. corneri and P. mira are
Dipterocarp forest dwellers to 700 m, and P. geminiflora is distributed through a variety
of tropical forest types to 1200 m.[3]

Cultivation and uses[edit]

The Plectocomiopsis species are not usually cultivated, being extremely spiny and
requiring particular tropical conditions. In their natural range they are used in basketry,
however their fragile nature prevents them from being a common rattan source.
The palm heart of P. geminiflora, despite its bitter taste, is regarded as a delicacy
in Borneo;[3] villagers regard some of the others as edible and some as poisonous.

References[edit]
1. ^ Beccari in J.D. Hooker, Flora of British India 6:479. 1893.
2. ^ Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
3. ^ Jump up to:          Uhl, Natalie W. and Dransfield, John (1987) Genera Palmarum - A
a b c d e

classification of palms based on the work of Harold E. Moore. Lawrence, Kansas: Allen
Press. ISBN 0-935868-30-5 / ISBN 978-0-935868-30-2
4. ^ Riffle, Robert L. and Craft, Paul (2003) An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms. Portland:
Timber Press. ISBN 0-88192-558-6 / ISBN 978-0-88192-558-6

External links[edit]
  Plectocomiopsis on NPGS/GRIN
 GBIF portal
 Fairchild Guide to Palms: Plectocomiopsis
 Naturekind.org images
 "Projek Etnobotani Kinabalu: The making of a Dusun Ethnoflora (Sabah,
Malaysia)". People and Plants Initiative. February 2002. pp. 67–68. Archived
from the original on 2008-02-05. Retrieved 2008-04-07.
144325

: Plectocomiopsis

622

141467

-1

16638

:lsid:ipni.org:names:31446-1

0011026

4000030196
Categories: 
 Calamoideae
 Arecaceae genera
 Taxa named by Odoardo Beccari
 Dioecious plants