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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>Elegant, moderate to tall, solitary pinnate-leaved palms, native to Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga, all with crownshafts and almost always praemorse leaflets, the fruit with smooth thin endocarp and rounded seed with homogeneous endosperm.</p></div>

<nomenclature>

<name>Veitchia</name>

<author>H. Wendl. in Seem.</author> 

<citation>Flora vit. 270 (1868)</citation>

<type>Type; Veitchia joannis; H.Wendl.</type>

<synonymy>

<name>Vitiphoenix</name>

<author>Becc.</author>

<bibref>Becc., Ann. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg 2: 9 (1885).</bibref>

<type>Type; Vitiphoenix filifera; (H.Wendl.) Becc.</type>

</synonymy>

<synonymy>

<name>Kajewskia</name>

<author>Guillaumin</author>

<bibref>Guillaumin, J. Arnold Arbor. 13: 113 (1932).</bibref>

<type>Type; Kajewskia aneityensis; Guillaumin</type>

</synonymy>

</nomenclature>

<div type="etymology"><p>Honours James Veitch (1792–1863), famous British nurseryman.</p></div>

<div type="description"><p>Moderate to tall, solitary, unarmed, pleonanthic, monoecious palms. Stem moderate, sometimes wide at the base, ringed with close leaf scars, becoming longitudinally striate, covered in grey scales or smooth, grey to brown. Leaves pinnate, spreading or partially erect; sheaths forming a prominent crownshaft, covered with deciduous grey to brown tomentum; petiole short, adaxially channelled, abaxially rounded, densely covered with decidous tomentum at least basally, often bearing dark brown to black, tattered scales in various, sometimes diagnostic patterns at the apex; rachis elongate, flat to ridged adaxially, rounded abaxially, tomentose; leaflets regularly or irregularly arranged, single-fold, tapered from middle to base and usually to the apex, apically oblique, truncate, acute, or acuminate and variously toothed, the upper margin usually longest, midrib and marginal veins prominent, midrib bearing ramenta abaxially, otherwise abaxial surface covered in pale scales with brown centres, shining red scales, or glabrous, transverse veinlets not evident. Inflorescences infrafoliar, branched to 3 or 4 orders basally, fewer orders distally, branches variously tomentose; peduncle short, stout, dorsiventrally compressed; prophyll and peduncular bract caducous, prophyll tubular, rather thin, 2-keeled laterally; peduncular bract like the prophyll but lacking keels, briefly beaked, scar of an incomplete peduncular bract usually present; rachis longer than the peduncle, tapering, stiff, bearing very short bracts subtending branches and rachillae; rachillae medium to long, slightly to markedly flexuous, bearing spirally, or distally subdistichous triads nearly throughout, or triads only near the base of the rachillae and distally flower clusters of paired or solitary staminate flowers; floral bracteoles very small or conspicuous, short, rounded, margins notched. Staminate flowers bullet-shaped; sepals 3, distinct, imbricate, rounded, ± hooded; petals 3, slightly asymmetrical to symmetrical, valvate, more than twice as long as the sepals; stamens numerous, to over 100, filaments awl-shaped, long, slender, united at the base, not inflexed apically, anthers linear, basifixed or dorsifixed and then bases deeply sagittate, acute, emarginate, or bifid apically, latrorse; pistillode attenuate from a bulbous base, as long as the stamens, usually bifid or trifid apically. Pollen ellipsoidal asymmetric, often elongate; aperture a distal sulcus; ectexine tectate, perforate, or perforate-finely rugulate, aperture margin similar or slightly finer; infratectum columellate; longest axis 40–73 µm; post-meiotic tetrads tetrahedral, rarely tetragonal or rhomboidal [6/8]. Pistillate flowers ovoid; sepals 3, distinct, thick, imbricate, margins notched; petals 3, distinct, broadly imbricate, only slightly longer than the sepals, apices shortly valvate, margins notched; staminodes 3–6, tooth-like, usually variously connate; gynoecium irregularly ovoid, unilocular, uniovulate, style thick, stigmas 3, sessile, recurved at anthesis, ovule large, laterally attached, form unknown. Fruit ovoid, beaked, small to moderately large, red or orange-red at maturity, perianth whorls enlarged, persistent, stigmatic remains apical; epicarp thin, sometimes appearing lined or pebbled when dry, mesocarp yellowish, thin-fleshy, with 3–5 layers of slender to large fibres and ground tissue sclerified near the endocarp, endocarp thin, chartaceous, cartilaginous or nearly glass-like, fragile, in some species fracturing transversely. Seed ovoid to ellipsoidal, truncate basally, rounded to pointed apically, attached laterally, hilum elongate, raphe branches descending from the apex and sides, simple, forked, or branched and much anastomosed, endosperm homogenous; embryo basal. Germination adjacent-ligular; eophyll bifid. Cytology: 2n = 32.</p></div>

<div type="distribution"><p>Eight species in Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga. </p></div>

<div type="anatomy"><p>Leaf (Tomlinson 196l), root (Seubert 1998a, 1998b) and fruit (Essig 1977). </p></div>

<div type="relationships"><p>Lewis et al. (in prep.) resolve Veitchia as monophyletic with high bootstrap support. The genus is moderately supported as sister to a clade of Solfia and Balaka (Norup et al. 2006, Baker et al. in review, in prep., Lewis et al. in prep.). </p></div>

<div type="uses"><p>Several species are elegant ornamentals. The leaves have been used for thatch and the trunks as wood for rafters, spears, and canoes. The heart is edible as a salad and the inflorescence and seed are also said to be edible in Veitchia vitiensis. </p></div>

<div type="taxonomic accounts"><p>Zona and Fuller (1999). </p></div>

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

<div type="discussion"><p>The genus is distinguished from other Ptychospermatinae by the combination of similar prophyll and peduncular bracts, lanceolate leaflets, and rounded rather than angled seeds.</p></div>

<div type="vernacular"><p>Niuniu, niusawa (Fiji). </p></div>

<div type="biology_ecology"><p>Found from near sea level to cloud forests at 1000 m in dense or light forest. </p></div>

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

</treatment>

</taxonxBody>

</taxonx>