Volume 11 > Part 3 > Year 2013 > Page 490 > Arecaceae > Trachycarpus

Trachycarpus oreophilus Gibbons & Spannerwfo-0000326536

Principes 41: 205. 1997. Plate CIX: C.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Description : Solitary polygamo-dioecious palm. Stem up to 9 m tall at maturity, 10–16 cm diam., erect, naked, conspicuously ringed. Leaves 20–25 in crown; sheath ca 25–30 cm long dissolving in spreading fine fibres; petiole 40–50 cm long, margins minutely toothed and somewhat tomentose; adaxial hastula prominent to 3 cm long; blade rounded in outline, moderately undulate to flat, 0.9–1.1 m diam., evenly splitting to ca ½ radius into 60–90, single-folded segments, individual segments shortly indented, green adaxially, glaucous green abaxially. Inflorescences 3–5 on one palm, arching, prophyll 15–25 cm long, peduncular bracts and rachis bracts similar, 15–35 cm long, decreasing in length towards the distal parts, tubular proximally, inflated distally; male inflorescences 30–50 cm long, with 15–20 cm long peduncle; female (sometimes hermaphrodite?) inflorescences 0.8–1 m long, with 30–50 cm long peduncle; rachillae 3–10 cm long, stiff. Flowers minute in bud. Fruit kidney-shaped, 0.6–0.8 cm long and 10–12 cm wide, yellow to yellowish-brown at maturity.

Thailand : NORTHERN: Chiang Mai (type: Gibbons & Spanner s.n., holotype -BKF, isotype -K).

Distribution : Endemic to N Thailand.

Ecology : Restricted to limestone, often growing at the edge of precipices. Narrow endemic to a few mountain ranges near Chiang Mai. Today it only occurs on the highest ridges from 1,800–2,175 m but may have been much more common in the mountain forests at lower altitudes.

Vernacular : Kho doi (ค้อดอย), kho chiang dao (ค้อเชียงดาว)(Chiang Mai).

Uses: A fine ornamental; there is a demand for seed for the international horticultural trade.

Conservation Status: Critical. Restricted to a few limestone mountains ranges where populations have been severely reduced by wild fires probably caused by illegal cultivation of opium poppies.