Laccosperma

taxobox
name = "Laccosperma"
regnum = Plantae
unranked_divisio = Angiosperms
unranked_classis = Monocots
unranked_ordo = Commelinids
ordo = Arecales
familia = Arecaceae
subfamilia = Calamoideae
tribus = Calameae
genus = "Laccosperma"
genus_authority = (G. Mann & H. Wendl.) Drude Drude, Botanische Zeitung 35:632, 635. 1877. Type:"L. opacum"]
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision = *"Laccosperma acutiflorum"
*"Laccosperma korupensis"
*"Laccosperma laeve"
*"Laccosperma opacum"
*"Laccosperma robustum"
*"Laccosperma secundiflorum"|

"Laccosperma" is a clustering genus of flowering plant in the palm family found in tropical Africa. Poorly studied and rarely cultivated, they are closely related to the "Eremospatha" genus and with it form a tribe in the "Calameae" characterized by dyads of hermaphrodite flowers.Uhl, Natalie W. and Dransfield, John (1987) "Genera Palmarum - A classification of palms based on the work of Harold E. Moore". Lawrence, Kansas: Allen Press. ISBN-10: ISBN-10: 0935868305 / ISBN-13: 978-0935868302] The genus name combines the Greek words for "reservoir" and "seed".Riffle, Robert L. and Craft, Paul (2003) "An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms". Portland: Timber Press. ISBN-10: 0881925586 / ISBN-13: 978-0881925586]

Description

The trunks are mostly medium to large, clustering, high climbing, and extensively armed with sharp spines. The pinnate leaves are usually large, with spiny petioles, rachises and leaf sheaths. The barbed, linear leaflets are regularly arranged along the rachis and usually hang pendent. The end of the rachis is modified for climbing, featuring double, recurved spines which hook onto forest vegetation. In some species the ocrea, a thin flange where the leaf meets the stem, is enlarged and harbors ants. [cite web |url= http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/X9923E/x9923e06.htm#P0_0 |title="Taxonomy, biology and ecology of rattan" |date=2008-03-24 |author=Dransfield, John]

As hapaxanths, after a prolonged vegetative period, a brief flowering phase begins which results in the death of individual stems. They simultaneously produce multiple inflorescences at the top of the trunk, long, once or twice-branched spikes with bisexual flowers. The fruit is small and scaly and contains one seed.

Distribution and habitat

Growing in the tropics of the Congo Basin and west Africa, the "Laccosperma" palms are found in Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, and Gabon. They grow in low rain forest mountains and in swamps where they may be used as a source of cane.

References

reflist

External links

* [http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/genus.pl?6434 "Laccosperma" on NPGS/GRIN]
* [http://data.gbif.org/species/14721854 GBIF portal]
* [http://palmguide.org/genus.php?family=ARECACEAE&genus=Laccosperma Fairchild Guide to Palms: "Laccosperma"]