Volume 11 > Part 3 > Year 2013 > Page 434 > Arecaceae > Licuala

5. Licuala merguensis Becc.wfo-0000227485

Webbia 5: 47. 1921; Barfod & Saw, Kew Bull. 57: 837. 2002.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Synonyms & Citations :

Description : Solitary palm tree. Stem usually less than 1 m tall, 5–8 cm diam., often covered by persistent leaf bases to the base. Leaf sheath 40–50 cm long, ligule up to 15 cm long in young leaves; petiole up to 2.2 m long, basally with 0.2–0.5 cm long, slender, often unevenly sized and irregularly set spines; lamina divided into 9–17 segments; middle segment entire with 7–17 adaxial ribs, or breaking up irregularly into up to three additional segments, petiolulate or rarely sessile, 35–65 cm long; the remaining segments with 2–4 adaxial ribs, the basal ones 30–50 cm long; indentations leading to adaxial and abaxial folds almost even, 0.2–0.5 cm. Inflorescence rarely more than 50 cm long, sinuous and messy looking, often partly covered by litter trapped at the leaf bases, with 4–6(–7) partial infl orescences; peduncle 10–15 cm long; prophyll 9–12 cm long; peduncular bracts lacking; basal rachis bract 8–15(–20) cm long, inflated distally, disintegrating irregularly at the apex; partial inflorescences with 3–6 rachillae, curved in various directions, with light brown to ferruginous woolly hair covering, proximal rachillae (5–)10–15 cm long. Flowers up to ca 150 on longest rachillae, grouped in 2–3 fl owered cincinni basally to solitary distally, sessile; bract subtending cincinni or individual flowers up to 0.5 cm; calyx 0.25–0.4 cm long, urn-shaped, glabrous basally, covered by light brown woolly hair above the middle, with three rounded ca 0.5 mm long lobes; corolla 0.3–0.4 cm long, covered by seriate hairs arranged in transversal stripes, erect at anthesis, greenish-brown on the outside, bright yellow on the inside; androecium ca 0.15 cm long, fused to corolla for 0.5 mm; anthers 0.6–0.8 mm long: ovary 0.15 cm long, obovoid, locules in lower half, style ca 0.5 mm, stigma overtopping anthers. Fruit rounded, 0.8–1 cm diam.

Thailand : PENINSULAR: Ranong, Surat Thani, Phangnga, Phuket.

Distribution : Myanmar (type).

Ecology : This is the only yellow-flowered species of Licuala in Thailand. The short messy looking inflorescences are very characteristic and may have adaptive significance in relation to the pollinators. A copious amount of nectar is produced by a labyrinthine type of nectary.

Vernacular : Ka ching (กะชิง), ka pho hang nu (กะพ้อหางหนู)(Peninsular).

Notes: Recorded from many localities but often quite scattered locally. No immediate concern, but further research is required.