Volume 11 > Part 3 > Year 2013 > Page 442 > Arecaceae > Licuala

12. Licuala scortechinii Becc.wfo-0000227544

Malesia 3: 192. 1889; Becc. & Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 6: 434. 1892; Ridl., Fl. Malay Penins. 5: 30. 1925; Furtado, Gard. Bull. Straits Settelements 11: 67. 1940; Saw, Sandakania 10: 63. 1997; Barfod & Saw, Kew Bull. 57: 845. 2002.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Synonyms & Citations :

Description : Solitary palm, rarely suckering. Stem to 1 m tall, 1.7–2 cm diam., smooth, inconspicuously ringed. Leaf sheath 5–8 cm long on older leaves, with ligule up to 10 cm long; petiole 15–30 cm long, basally with few, scattered spines to 0.1–0.2 cm long; lamina thin chartaceous, often with a crumpled appearance, unevenly divided into 4–5 segments, with convexly curved lateral margins and converging basally in a funnel-like fashion; middle segment entire, with 13–14 adaxial ribs, 15–20 cm long, the remaining segments with 3–5 adaxial ribs, 15–77 cm long; indentations leading to the adaxial folds to ca 1.2 cm long, those leading to the abaxial folds ca 0.4 cm long. Inflorescences 15–34 cm long, patent to pendulous, spicate to furcate; peduncle ca 25–30 cm long; prophyll 17–22 cm long, inflated, with 6 cm long split along one side; peduncular bract lacking; rachis sinuous, almost glabrous; single rachis bract 2–5 cm long, loosely sheathing at the apex, inserted ca 3 cm above prophyll, sparsely covered with stellate hairs, splitting cleanly along one side; partial inflorescence spicate or branching near the apex of the subtending bract into two, 3–5 cm long rachillae, covered with simple, whitish to golden hairs. Flowers light green, solitary or in cincinni of 2(–3), on hairy floral stalks up to 0.1 cm long; floral subtending bracts ca 0.5 mm long; buds ca 0.35 cm long, turbinate; calyx ca 0.15 cm long, membranous, loosely enclosing corolla in dried specimens, striate, truncate apically, covered with dense to scattered fine golden hairs; corolla to 0.3–0.4 cm long, thick, striate when dried, covered with scattered fine brown simple hairs, lobes ca 0.2 cm long, apex acute; androecium ca 0.5 mm long; filaments filiform, ca 0.5 mm long, with triangular base; anthers reniform, ca 0.8 mm long; ovary glabrous, cylindrical, apex rounded, ca 0.1 cm long; style filiform, ca 0.15 cm long; stigma overtopping the anthers. Fruit ca 0.5 cm diam., globose.

Thailand : PENINSULAR: Narathiwat.

Distribution : Peninsular Malaysia (type).

Ecology : Extending from the lowlands to montane forests.

Vernacular : None recorded.

Uses: Not recorded.

Conservation Status: Unknown. Occurs marginally in Thailand where it has been recorded only once. Possibly of high concern.

Notes: The description is based on a combination of Hodel (1997b, as Licuala delicata) and Saw (1997). The single collection from Thailand differs from the type by having rather few, shallowly indented leaf segments and densely hairy rachillae. Licuala scortechiniiis primarily distinguished by its reduced inflorescence, the long and wide prophyll and small rachis bracts, the obconical calyx and corolla being striate when dried. The collection cited from Thailand unfortunately does not include flowers. Additional Peninsular Malaysian specimens studied differ from the Thai collection by having evenly segmented leaves, up to 29 cm long prophyll (up to 22 cm in the Thai collection), and 4–12 cm long rachillae (3–5 cm in the Thai collection). Whether these differences are constant is pending further field work.