EDIT

<taxonx xmlns:dc="http://digir.net/schema/conceptual/darwin/core/2.0" xmlns:mods="http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">

<taxonxHeader>

		<mods:mods>

		<mods:titleInfo><mods:title>The Palms of Madagascar</mods:title></mods:titleInfo>

<mods:name>

<mods:namePart type="family">Dransfield</mods:namePart>

<mods:namePart type="given">J.</mods:namePart>

<mods:namePart type="family">Beentje</mods:namePart>

<mods:namePart type="given">H.</mods:namePart>

</mods:name>

		<mods:originInfo>

			<mods:dateIssued>1995</mods:dateIssued>

			<mods:publisher>Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and The International Palm Society</mods:publisher>

		</mods:originInfo>

		</mods:mods>

</taxonxHeader>

<taxonxBody>

<treatment rank="species">

<nomenclature>

<name>Orania trispatha</name>

<author>(J.Dransf.&amp; N.W.Uhl) Beentje &amp; J.Dransf.</author>

<citation>Palms of Madagascar: 117 (1995)</citation>

<type>Madagascar, Masoala, across Onive R. from Ambatobe and upriver from Ambohitralanana, 8 April 1971; Moore; 9921</type>

<type_loc>Holotype BH; isotype P</type_loc>

<synonymy>

<name>Halmoorea trispatha</name>

<author> J.Dransf. &amp; N.W.Uhl</author>

<bibref>J.Dransf. &amp; N.W.Uhl, Principes 28 (4): 166 (1984)</bibref>

</synonymy>

</nomenclature>

<div type="introduction"><p>A majestic distichous palm of great beauty, and the largest member of the genus in Madagascar. The trunk is frequently swollen at the base. Because of its striking distichous leaves this species has been much sought after by enthusiasts.</p></div>

<div type="etymology"><p></p></div>

<div type="vernacular"><p>Sindro or Sindroa (Betsimisaraka); Anivo (Antaisaka).</p></div>

<div type="description"><p>Solitary palm. TRUNK 20-22 m, 20-35 cm diam.; root boss 30 cm high, 40-60 cm diam.; internodes 12-15 cm, light brown or grey; nodal scars 5 cm; wood hard. Crownshaft absent. LEAVES distichous, forming a fan, 10-12 in the crown, held on edge in their distal part; sheath c. 60 cm long, without ligules or markings, green with brown margins, grading into petiole, with rusty brown indumentum and white wax; petiole 75-200 cm long, channelled with sharp edges, 2.3-7 x 2.9-6 cm diam., densely grey-brown pubescent; rachis 2-2.3 m long, in mid-leaf 2.6-3 cm wide, keeled; leaflets regular, 60-65 on each side of the rachis, those on opposite sides of the rachis at an angle of c. 150&#176;, the proximal 58-93 x 0.6-4 cm, median 65-99 x 3-9.5 cm (interval 4-5 cm), distal 10-53 x 0.5-2 cm, distal pair hardly connate, discolorous, abaxially with a thin white covering, with minute brown scales, the midrib with many pale grey ramenta to 5 cm long, main veins 3-5, also with large pale ramenta, apices obliquely praemorse. INFLORESCENCE interfoliar, branched to 3-4 orders, spreading; peduncle 16-25 cm long, 5.5-6 cm diam., slightly flattened, densely red- or brown-pubescent; prophyll woody, 30-40 cm long, 6.5-10 cm wide, borne at c. 5 cm above the base of the peduncle, brown-pubescent; peduncular bracts two, the first inserted at 3-10 cm from the base of the peduncle, 60-80 cm long with a beak of 8 cm, the second inserted at 7-18 cm from the base of the peduncle, 58 cm long with a beak of 7 cm, both woody, inflated, terete, green with brown scales, inflated, deciduous in the fruiting stage; rachis 30-40 cm long, with 8-12 branched first order branches, these proximally 3 x 1 cm diam.; rachillae 15-46 cm long, 6-7 mm diam., zigzag, reddish-scaly to glabrous; triads distant. STAMINATE FLOWERS asymmetrical, fleshy; sepals 1.5-4 x 4 mm, petals 9 x 5-9 mm; stamens 27-30, basifixed, latrorse, the filaments very short, the anthers c. 6 x 1 mm; pistillode absent. PISTILLATE FLOWERS asymmetrical; sepals 5 x 5 mm, petals 17-33 x 12-15 mm (in fruit); staminodes 11-12, thread-like, c. 2 mm; ovary 3-lobed, c. 5 x 8 mm, with papillose stigmas to 1.5 mm. FRUIT green, when slightly immature semi-globose or obovoid and 3.9-4.5 cm diam., but more often 2-lobed or 3-lobed and 5-5.5 cm high and 5-8 cm diam., when immature containing a bitter-tasting fluid solidifying into a homogeneous endosperm; stigmatic remains sub-basal. EOPHYLL pinnate (Beentje 4522).</p></div>

<div type="distribution"><p>E Madagascar.</p></div>

<div type="biology_ecology"><p>Lowland rain forest; flat ground near streams, swamp edges; 50-400 m.</p></div>

<div type="conservation"><p>Critical. Known only from three sites, all of which are under threat of destruction, with very low population numbers less than fifty trees are known.</p></div>

<div type="uses"><p>Palm heart not edible. Wood used in hut construction (Manombo).</p></div>

<div type="discussion"><p>The protologue states the pinnae are white-waxy on the adaxial surface; this should be the abaxial surface. The generic distinction could not be upheld, when we discovered that Orania longisquama may have either one or two peduncular bracts; with more material available, and with O. ravaka being described here, the number of stamens does not remain a generic character, but rather a specific one; the number of staminodes for O. ravaka encompasses the range of both O. trispatha and O. longisquama. The calyx in all taxa seems to be connate to varying degrees at its very base. The specimen from Manombo (about 800 km S of the Masoala/ Mananara populations) has a different "feel" to the leaf, with hardly any surface covering of a whitish substance, and fewer little red scales.</p></div>

<div type="materials_examined"><p>Antalaha: Ambatobe, April 1971 (fl.), Moore 9921 (type, P). Maroantsetra: Sahavary, Oct. 1986 (fr.), Dransfield et al. JD6400 (K, P, TAN). Farafangana: Manombo, Nov. 1991 (fr.), Beentje 4522 (BH, K, MO, P, TAN).</p></div>

</treatment>

</taxonxBody>

</taxonx>