Cyphokentia
Encyclopedia
Cyphokentia is a monotypic
genus
of flowering plant
in the palm
family native to New Caledonia
. The only species
, Cyphokentia macrostachya, is slow-growing and monoecious; the genus is named from two Greek
words meaning "tumor" and "Kentia", a former palm genus, and the species name translates to "large" and "spike", describing the inflorescence.
meet the trunk with a 1 m, slightly-bulging crownshaft
covered in tomentum and scales, giving it a brown to gray to white color. The pinnate
leaves extend from 60 cm petioles at a 3 m length, recurved and bright green in color. The leaflets are over a meter long, obliquely acute, with one fold along a prominent midrib.
The branched inflorescence
grows beneath the leaf crown, circling the trunk, producing tiny branches of male and female flowers. The male flowers have three sepals, three petals and six stamens, with three petals, three sepals, and three staminode
s in the females. The ovoid fruit
ripen to a bright red color, containing one ellipsoidal seed
.
to 900 m in elevation in free draining, schistose soil. They are not tolerant of frost and usually grow in filtered light or shade until they reach the canopy top in their later life.
Monotypic
In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group with only one biological type. The term's usage differs slightly between botany and zoology. The term monotypic has a separate use in conservation biology, monotypic habitat, regarding species habitat conversion eliminating biodiversity and...
genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of flowering plant
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...
in the palm
Arecaceae
Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...
family native to New Caledonia
New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...
. The only species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
, Cyphokentia macrostachya, is slow-growing and monoecious; the genus is named from two Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
words meaning "tumor" and "Kentia", a former palm genus, and the species name translates to "large" and "spike", describing the inflorescence.
Description
The yellow, green or gray solitary trunks reach over 15 m in height at a 20 cm diameter, slightly bulging at the base. The leavesLeaves
-History:Vocalist Arnar Gudjonsson was formerly the guitarist with Mower, and he was joined by Hallur Hallsson , Arnar Ólafsson , Bjarni Grímsson , and Andri Ásgrímsson . Late in 2001 they played with Emiliana Torrini and drew early praise from the New York Times...
meet the trunk with a 1 m, slightly-bulging crownshaft
Crownshaft
An elongated circumferential leaf base formation present on some species of palm is called a crownshaft.The leaf bases of some pinnate leaved palms form a sheath at the top of the trunk surrounding the bud where all the subsequent leaves are formed.The crownshaft...
covered in tomentum and scales, giving it a brown to gray to white color. The pinnate
Pinnate
Pinnate is a term used to describe feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis in plant or animal structures, and comes from the Latin word pinna meaning "feather", "wing", or "fin". A similar term is pectinate, which refers to a comb-like arrangement of parts...
leaves extend from 60 cm petioles at a 3 m length, recurved and bright green in color. The leaflets are over a meter long, obliquely acute, with one fold along a prominent midrib.
The branched inflorescence
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...
grows beneath the leaf crown, circling the trunk, producing tiny branches of male and female flowers. The male flowers have three sepals, three petals and six stamens, with three petals, three sepals, and three staminode
Staminode
In botany, a staminode is an often rudimentary, sterile or abortive stamen. This means that it does not produce pollen. Staminodes are frequently inconspicuous and stamen-like, usually occurring at the inner whorl of the flower, but are also sometimes long enough to protrude from the...
s in the females. The ovoid fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
ripen to a bright red color, containing one ellipsoidal seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
.
Distribution and habitat
Cyphokentia macrostachya grows in New Caledonian rain forest, from sea levelSea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
to 900 m in elevation in free draining, schistose soil. They are not tolerant of frost and usually grow in filtered light or shade until they reach the canopy top in their later life.