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<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>Genera Palmarum. The evolution and classification of palms</mods:title></mods:titleInfo>

<mods:name>

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

</mods:name>

<mods:originInfo>

<mods:dateIssued>2008</mods:dateIssued><mods:publisher>Kew Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew</mods:publisher></mods:originInfo>

</mods:mods>

</taxonxHeader>

<taxonxBody>

<treatment rank="genus">

<div type="diagnosis"><p>Variable small to moderate, solitary or clustered pinnate-leaved palms, native to the Moluccas through New Guinea to Solomon Islands and Australia, all with crownshafts and praemorse leaflets, and generally with fibrous ridged endocarp.</p></div>

<nomenclature>

<name>Ptychosperma</name>

<author>Labill.</author>

<citation>Mém. Cl. Sci. Math. Inst. Natl. France 1808 (2): 252 (1809).</citation>

<type>Type; Ptychosperma gracile; Labill.</type>

<synonymy>

<name>Seaforthia</name>

<author>R.Br.</author>

<bibref>R.Br., Prodr. 267 (1810).</bibref>

<type>Type; Seaforthia elegans; R.Br.</type>

</synonymy>

<synonymy>

<name>Actinophloeus</name>

<author>(Becc.) Becc.</author>

<bibref>(Becc.) Becc., Ann. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg 2: 126 (1885).</bibref>

<type>Lectotype; Actinophloeus ambiguus; (Becc.) Becc.</type>

</synonymy>

<synonymy>

<name>Romanowia</name>

<author>Sander ex André</author>

<bibref>Sander ex André, Rev. Hort. 71: 262 (1899).</bibref>

</synonymy>

<synonymy>

<name>Strongylocaryum</name>

<author>Burret</author>

<bibref>Burret, Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berlin-Dahlem 13: 95 (1936).</bibref>

<type>Type; Strongylocaryum macranthum; Burret</type>

</synonymy>

</nomenclature>

<div type="etymology"><p>Ptyx — a fold or cleft, sperma — seed, referring to the grooved seed.</p></div>

<div type="description"><p>Small to moderate, solitary or clustered, unarmed, pleonanthic, monoecious palms. Stems erect, usually slender, smooth, often grey, obscurely or conspicuously ringed with leaf scars. Leaves pinnate, rather short, vertical to ± horizontal, relatively few in the crown; sheath elongate, forming a prominent crownshaft, bearing tattered, peltate, or tufted scales and tomentum, the sheath apex with or without a triangular or ligulate, sometimes divided appendage opposite or to one side of the petiole; petiole short or elongate, channelled adaxially, usually rounded abaxially, tomentose or with scales; rachis longer than the petiole, adaxially ridged, abaxially rounded, variously scaly; leaflets regularly or irregularly arranged, or clustered, single-fold, wedge-shaped, linear or wider medianly, apices obliquely or concavely praemorse, or praemorse and notched, the margins extending beyond the midrib, midrib always prominent, marginal ribs thickened, usually glabrous adaxially, the large or small distal leaflets linear to broadly wedge-shaped, ramenta present or absent along abaxial ribs, transverse veinlets evident (?always). Inflorescences infrafoliar, branched usually to 2, 3, or 4(–6) orders, protandrous; peduncle usually short but elongate in Ptychosperma tagulense, angled, glabrous, or with scales and tomentum throughout; prophyll tubular, dorsiventrally flattened, keeled laterally, attached at the base of the peduncle, splitting apically, then abaxially, early caducous; peduncular bract tubular, similar to, attached close to, and enclosed by the prophyll, often with a hard short or tapering beak, splitting abaxially, early caducous, an incomplete peduncular bract usually present; rachis longer than the peduncle except where peduncle elongate; rachis bracts triangular to ligulate, or short, stubby, in horizontal furrows, spirally arranged; rachillae elongate, often fleshy, bearing spirally arranged bracts similar to the rachis bracts, subtending triads basally and paired to solitary staminate flowers distally, from as few as 4 to more than 100 clusters per rachilla depending on the species; floral bracteoles short, rounded. Staminate flowers bullet-shaped to ovoid, lateral to the pistillate in triads; sepals 3, distinct, broadly imbricate, sometimes gibbous, margins fringed, tips shortly pointed; petals 3, distinct, ovate, rather thick, fibrous, valvate, grooved adaxially, 3–4 times as long as the sepals; stamens 9–over 100, arranged in alternating antesepalous whorls of 3 and antepetalous whorls of several (Uhl and Moore 1980), filaments short, awl-shaped, not inflexed, anthers linear-lanceolate, strongly, often unevenly sagittate basally, bifid apically, dorsifixed near the middle, versatile, latrorse, connective elongate, tannniferous; pistillode bottle-shaped with a long neck, irregularly cleft apically, or short, conic-ovoid, trifid or tripapillate apically. Pollen ellipsoidal asymmetric, occasionally pyriform or lozenge-shaped; aperture a distal sulcus; ectexine tectate, perforate, or perforate-rugulate, aperture margin similar or slightly finer; infratectum columellate; longest axis 32–62 µm; post-meiotic tetrads tetrahedral, sometimes tetragonal or, rarely, rhomboidal [14/28]. Pistillate flowers shorter than the staminate, conic-ovoid; sepals 3, distinct, broadly imbricate, sometimes gibbous, marginally fringed; petals 3, distinct, broadly imbricate, tips valvate, thick, pointed, opening slightly but not reflexed at anthesis; staminodes tooth-like, linear or united, then broad, toothed or ribbed, and scale-like; gynoecium conic-ovoid, unilocular, rarely bi- or trilocular, stigmas 3, short, reflexed at anthesis, ovule hemianatropous, 5-angled, pendulous, funicle long, bearing a short aril. Fruit globose to ellipsoidal, red, orange or purple-black at maturity, stigmatic remains apical, forming a beak, perianth persistent; epicarp granular due to short or long, oblique, fibrous bundles and interspersed brachysclereids, mesocarp fleshy, mucilaginous or tanniniferous, sometimes with irritant needle crystals, endocarp fibrous with vascular bundles with large fibrous sheaths at several levels and extending into the inner mesocarp or united in a single layer (P. salomonense), usually adherent to the seed. Seed longitudinally 5-grooved or angled, rarely 3-grooved or rounded in cross-section, hilum lateral, raphe branches few, sparsely branched, endosperm homogeneous or ruminate; embryo basal. Germination adjacent-ligular; eophyll bifid. Cytology: 2n = 32.</p></div>

<div type="distribution"><p>Twenty-nine species centred in New Guinea and the D’Entrecasteaux and Louisiade archipelagos, but extending west to east from the Moluccas to the Solomon Islands and south to north-eastern Australia. A number of other species have been described but are as yet poorly known. </p></div>

<div type="anatomy"><p>Leaf (Tomlinson 1961), root (Seubert 1998a, 1998b), inflorescence and flower development (Uhl 1976a, 1976b), stamen development (Uhl and Moore 1980), correlations of anatomy with pollination (Uhl and Moore 1977a), and fruit (Essig 1977). </p></div>

<div type="relationships"><p>Ptychosperma is strongly supported as monophyletic with high support (Lewis et al. in prep., Baker et al. in prep.). Lewis et al. (in prep.) place the genus as sister to a clade of Ponapea and Drymophloeus hentyi with low support. The findings of Asmussen et al. (2006), Norup et al. (2006) and Baker et al. (in review), who did not include D. hentyi in their studies, are congruent with this relationship.</p></div>

<div type="uses"><p>Some species make elegant ornamentals but need plentiful moisture and protection from winds. Essig (1978) reports uses of the wood for bows, arrowheads and spears, and that the fruit of some species has been a poor substitute for betel nut. </p></div>

<div type="taxonomic accounts"><p>Essig (1978). </p></div>

<div type="fossil record"><p>No generic records found. </p></div>

<div type="discussion"><p>Large areas within the geographical range of the genus are still unexplored botanically and new species may be discovered in the future, as noted by Essig (1978). About 12 species had been introduced into cultivation through the 1950s; seven of these have been in cultivation for over 100 years and are widely distributed around the world. Growers should be aware of the possibility of hybridization, which has been common among the cultivated species (Essig 1975). </p></div>

<div type="vernacular"><p>Solitare palm (Ptychosperma elegans), Macarthur palm (P. macarthurii). </p></div>

<div type="biology_ecology"><p>Each of the four subgenera and the two sections of subgenus Actinophloeus has a distinct range and habitat. The centre of diversity of subgenus Ptychosperma and the two sections of subgenus Actinophloeus is the mountainous south-eastern tip of New Guinea, where each of the groups has a number of endemic taxa. Some species inhabit coastal or swampy lowland forests, others the better-drained edges of these areas or foothills. Ptychosperma vestitum is exceptional in occurring in fresh-water swamps. Pollination in P. macarthurii is mostly by bees of the genus Nomia (Halictidae), which are attracted to flowers of both sexes by nectar (Essig 1973). </p></div>

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

</treatment>

</taxonxBody>

</taxonx>