Roscheria
Encyclopedia
Roscheria is an endangered, monotypic
genus
of flowering plant
in the palm
family. The genus is named for Albrecht Roscher, 19th-century German
explorer, and the epithet for its single species
R. melanochaetes derives from Latin
and Greek
meaning 'black' and 'bristle', alluding to the spines covering the trunks. They naturally occur on the Mahé
and Silhouette
Islands of Seychelles
where they grow in mountainous rainforest and are threatened by habitat loss.
reaches 8 m in height at 8 cm in diameter, usually straight, featuring distinctive rings near the crown. The trunks exhibit rings of black spines at each stem node, but this feature is most pronounced in young plants; as the plants age they grow fewer and fewer trunk spines, or none at all. Spines are also present on the crownshaft
and petioles
and these persist into maturity.
The crownshaft is 3 m tall, light green in color, covered in brown scales, especially nearing the top. The crownshaft bulges in its center and holds 12–16 pinnate
leaves
, 1–2 m long on 15–20 cm petioles. The leaves are distinct in that the individual leaflets exhibit enormous variation; some have a single rib while others have several, some are broad, some are narrow, some have pointed apices while others are obliquely truncated. The leaves are light to bright green on top and dull green to brown underneath; but for the bifid apices, juvenile leaves are undivided and pink to red in color.
Unlike most crownshafted species, the inflorescence
in R. melanochaetes emerges from the leaf axil rather than beneath the shaft. The much-branched panicle
is 1–2 m with unisexual flowers of both sexes. Fruit
matures to a 1 cm red drupe
with one seed
.
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. The genus is named for Albrecht Roscher, 19th-century German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
explorer, and the epithet for its single 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...
R. melanochaetes derives from Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and 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;...
meaning 'black' and 'bristle', alluding to the spines covering the trunks. They naturally occur on the Mahé
Mahé, Seychelles
Mahé is the largest island of the Seychelles, lying in the north east of the nation. The population of Mahé is 80,000. It contains the capital city of Victoria and accommodates 90% of the country's total population...
and Silhouette
Silhouette Island
Silhouette Island lies 20 km northwest of Mahé in the Seychelles. It is the third largest island in the Seychelles. It has an area of 20 km² and has a population of 135, mostly workers on the island. The main settlement is La Passe, where there is a hotel for visitors to Silhouette...
Islands of Seychelles
Seychelles
Seychelles , officially the Republic of Seychelles , is an island country spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar....
where they grow in mountainous rainforest and are threatened by habitat loss.
Description
Roscheria melanochaetes is a slow growing palm, the trunkTrunk (botany)
In botany, trunk refers to the main wooden axis of a tree that supports the branches and is supported by and directly attached to the roots. The trunk is covered by the bark, which is an important diagnostic feature in tree identification, and which often differs markedly from the bottom of the...
reaches 8 m in height at 8 cm in diameter, usually straight, featuring distinctive rings near the crown. The trunks exhibit rings of black spines at each stem node, but this feature is most pronounced in young plants; as the plants age they grow fewer and fewer trunk spines, or none at all. Spines are also present on the 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...
and petioles
Petiole (botany)
In botany, the petiole is the stalk attaching the leaf blade to the stem. The petiole usually has the same internal structure as the stem. Outgrowths appearing on each side of the petiole are called stipules. Leaves lacking a petiole are called sessile, or clasping when they partly surround the...
and these persist into maturity.
The crownshaft is 3 m tall, light green in color, covered in brown scales, especially nearing the top. The crownshaft bulges in its center and holds 12–16 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
Leaves
-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...
, 1–2 m long on 15–20 cm petioles. The leaves are distinct in that the individual leaflets exhibit enormous variation; some have a single rib while others have several, some are broad, some are narrow, some have pointed apices while others are obliquely truncated. The leaves are light to bright green on top and dull green to brown underneath; but for the bifid apices, juvenile leaves are undivided and pink to red in color.
Unlike most crownshafted species, the 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...
in R. melanochaetes emerges from the leaf axil rather than beneath the shaft. The much-branched panicle
Panicle
A panicle is a compound raceme, a loose, much-branched indeterminate inflorescence with pedicellate flowers attached along the secondary branches; in other words, a branched cluster of flowers in which the branches are racemes....
is 1–2 m with unisexual flowers of both sexes. 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,...
matures to a 1 cm red drupe
Drupe
In botany, a drupe is a fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell of hardened endocarp with a seed inside. These fruits develop from a single carpel, and mostly from flowers with superior ovaries...
with one 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...
.