Hyophorbe lagenicaulis

taxobox


status = CR
status_system = IUCN2.3
regnum = Plantae
unranked_divisio = Angiosperms
unranked_classis = Monocots
unranked_ordo = Commelinids
ordo = Arecales
familia = Arecaceae
genus = "Hyophorbe"
species = "H. lagenicaulis"
binomial = "Hyophorbe lagenicaulis"
binomial_authority = (L. Bailey) H.E.Moore|

"Hyophorbe lagenicaulis", known commonly as the Bottle Palm or Palmiste Gargoulette, is a species of flowering plant in the Arecaceae family.It is found only in Round Island, Mauritius.

Bottle Palm has a large swollen (sometimes bizarrely so) trunk. It is a myth that the trunk is a means by which the palm stores water. Bottle Palm has only four to six leaves open at any time. The flowers of the palm arise from under the crownshaft.

Bottle palms are very cold sensitive and are killed at 32°F (0°C) or colder for any appreciable length of time. They may survive a brief, light frost, but will have foliage damage. Only southern Florida provides a safe location in the USA to grow Bottle Palm, although mature flowering specimens may be occasionally be seen in favored microclimates around Cape Canaveral and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater in coastal central Florida. It makes a fine container-grown palm in other locations as long as it is protected from the cold and not overwatered.

While habitat destruction may destroy the last remaining palms in the wild, the survival of the species is assured due to its ubiquitous planting throughout the tropics as a specimen plant.

ource

* Page, W. 1998. [http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/38580/all Hyophorbe lagenicaulis] . [http://www.iucnredlist.org 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. ] Downloaded on 20 July 2007.