''Desmoncus'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of mostly climbing, spiny palms native to the

Neotropics The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropics, tropical Ecoregion#Terrestrial, terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperat ...

. The genus extends from

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

in the north to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

in the south, with two species present in the southeastern

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

(

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

and the

Windward Islands french: Îles du Vent , image_name = , image_caption = ''Political'' Windward Islands. Clockwise: Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada. , image_alt = , locator_map = , location = Caribbean SeaNorth ...

).Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref>Govaerts, R. & Dransfield, J. (2005). World Checklist of Palms: 1–223. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Description

''Desmoncus'' is best known as a genus of climbing palms. Twenty-three of the 24 species recognised by Andrew Henderson in his revision of the genus are climbers; only one, '' D. stans'' is free-standing. Almost all Neotropical climbing palms belong to ''Desmoncus''—the one exception being ''

Chamaedorea ''Chamaedorea'' is a genus of 107 species of palms, native to subtropical and tropical regions of the Americas.Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, palms checklist''Chamaedorea''/ref>Huxley, A., ed. (1992). ''New RHS Dictionary of Gardening''. Macmillan ...

elatior''. ''Desmoncus'' leaves are pinnately compound and are made up of a

leaf sheath A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, ste ...

, petioles,

rachis In biology, a rachis (from the grc, ῥάχις [], "backbone, spine") is a main axis or "shaft". In zoology and microbiology In vertebrates, ''rachis'' can refer to the series of articulated vertebrae, which encase the spinal cord. In this c ...

, and individual leaflets. The ends of the leaves are modified into a climbing structure called a cirrus. Instead of leaflets, the cirrus usually has

grappling hook A grappling hook or grapnel is a device that typically has multiple hooks (known as ''claws'' or ''flukes'') attached to a rope; it is thrown, dropped, sunk, projected, or fastened directly by hand to where at least one hook may catch and hol ...

-like structures called acanthophylls; in some species the cirrus is less well developed and is almost absent in ''D. stans'', the non-climbing species. All parts of the leaves, including the leaflets themselves, are covered with spines. Most species have straight spines that are over long, but a few species have curved spines that are less than 1 cm long.

Taxonomy

John Dransfield and colleagues put ''Desmoncus'' in the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

Arecoideae The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm trees ...

, the

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English language, English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in p ...

Cocoseae Cocoseae is a tribe of cocosoid palms of the family Arecaceae. Description The fruit of the Cocoseae is a modified drupe, with a sclerenchymatous epicarp and a highly developed mesocarp, formed mainly by parenchyma . The endocarp is generally sc ...

and the subtribe Bactridinae, together with ''

Aiphanes ''Aiphanes'' is a genus of spiny palms which is native to tropical regions of South and Central America and the Caribbean.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families There are about 26 species in the genus (see below), ranging in size fr ...

'', ''

Acrocomia ''Acrocomia'' is a genus of palms which is native to the Neotropics, ranging from Mexico in the north, through Central America and the Caribbean, and through South America south to Argentina. Description ''Acrocomia'' is a genus of spiny, pin ...

'', ''

Astrocaryum ''Astrocaryum'' is a genus of about 36 to 40 species of palms native to Central and South America and Trinidad. Description ''Astrocaryum'' is a genus of spiny palms with pinnately compound leaves–rows of leaflets emerge on either side of th ...

'' and ''

Bactris ''Bactris'' is a genus of spiny palms which are native to Mexico, South and Central America and the Caribbean. Most species are small trees about tall, but some are large trees while others are shrubs with subterranean stems. They have simple o ...

''. The genus was described by

Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius Carl Friedrich Philipp (Karl Friedrich Philipp) von Martius (17 April 1794 – 13 December 1868) was a German botanist and explorer. Life Martius was born at Erlangen, the son of Prof Ernst Wilhelm Martius, court apothecary. He graduated PhD f ...

in 1824. The first species described was '' D. polyacanthos''. Martius later described six additional species that he placed in the genus. In this 1881 ''Flora Brasiliensis'',

Carl Georg Oscar Drude Carl Georg Oscar Drude (5 June 1852 in Braunschweig – 1 February 1933 in Dresden) was a German botanist. From 1870 he studied science and chemistry at the Collegium Carolinum in Braunschweig, relocating to the University of Göttingen the fol ...

recognised 17 species.

João Barbosa Rodrigues João Barbosa Rodrigues (June 22, 1842 – March 6, 1909) was considered one of Brazil's greatest botanists, known especially for his work on orchids and palms. For nearly two decades he was director of the Botanic Garden of Rio de Janeiro. Somet ...

recognised 28 species in his 1903 work ''Setum Palmarum Brasiliensis''.

Max Burret Karl Ewald Maximilian Burret, commonly known as Max Burret (6 June 1883 – 19 September 1964) was a German botanist. Burret was born in Saffig near Andernach in the Kingdom of Prussia, Prussian Rhine Province. He originally studied law at L ...

published a revision of the entire genus in 1934. Burret described nine new species and ended up recognising a total of 41 species. In the 1940s, Liberty Hyde Bailey added 14 additional species to the genus ''Desmoncus''. Jan Wessels Boer rejected the

species concept The species problem is the set of questions that arises when biologists attempt to define what a species is. Such a definition is called a species concept; there are at least 26 recognized species concepts. A species concept that works well for se ...

used by Bailey, Barbosa Rodrigues, and Burret as being too narrow and ended up recognising only seven species In his 2011 revision of the genus, Andrew Henderson recognised 24 species.

Distribution

''Desmoncus'' ranges from Mexico in the north to Bolivia and Brazil in the south. Most species occur at lower elevations, but some species range as high as above sea level. The species are mostly found in lowland tropical rainforest. Twelve species occur in Colombia, the most species-rich country, while 10 are found in Brazil.

Species

* '' Desmoncus chinantlensis'' Liebm. ex Mart. – southern Mexico and Central America (Veracruz to Nicaragua) * '' Desmoncus cirrhifer'' A.H.Gentry & Zardini – Panama, Colombia, Ecuador * '' Desmoncus costaricensis'' (Kuntze) Burret – Costa Rica * '' Desmoncus giganteus'' A.J.Hend. – Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, western Brazil * '' Desmoncus horridus'' Splitg. ex Mart. – Trinidad, Venezuela, the Guianas, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil * '' Desmoncus interjectus'' A.J.Hend. – Colombia * '' Desmoncus kunarius'' de Nevers ex A.J.Hend. – Panama * '' Desmoncus latisectus'' Burret – Bolivia * '' Desmoncus leptoclonos'' Drude – Paraguay, Brazil * '' Desmoncus loretanus'' A.J.Hend. – Loreto region of Peru * '' Desmoncus madrensis'' A.J.Hend. – Peru * '' Desmoncus mitis'' Mart. – Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia * '' Desmoncus moorei'' A.J.Hend. – Nicaragua, Costa Rica * '' Desmoncus myriacanthos'' Dugand. – Panama, Colombia, Venezuela * '' Desmoncus obovoideus'' A.J.Hend. – Panama * ''

Desmoncus orthacanthos ''Desmoncus orthacanthos'' is a spiny, climbing palm native to tropical South America. Stems grow clustered together, and are 2–12 m long and 1.5–2 cm in diameter. Stems, leaf sheaths and often leaves are covered with black spines up ...

'' Mart. – eastern Brazil * '' Desmoncus osensis'' A.J.Hend. – Costa Rica * '' Desmoncus parvulus'' L.H.Bailey – Venezuela, Colombia, northwestern Brazil, the Guianas * '' Desmoncus polyacanthos'' Mart. – Trinidad, Windward Islands, Venezuela, the Guianas, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil * '' Desmoncus prunifer'' Poepp. ex Mart. – Loreto region of Peru * '' Desmoncus pumilus'' Trail. – Colombia, northwestern Brazil * '' Desmoncus setosus'' Mart. – Colombia, northwestern Brazil * ''

Desmoncus stans ''Desmoncus'' is a genus of mostly climbing, spiny palms native to the Neotropics. The genus extends from Mexico in the north to Brazil and Bolivia in the south, with two species present in the southeastern Caribbean (Trinidad and the Windward ...

'' Grayum & Nevers – Costa Rica * '' Desmoncus vacivus'' L.H.Bailey – Colombia, northwestern Brazil, Peru

References

: ''The Book of Palms/Das Buch der Palmen/Le livre des palmiers'', introduced by the editor H. Walter Lack,

Taschen Taschen is a luxury art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. As of January 2017, Taschen is co-managed by Benedikt and his eldest daughter, Marlene Taschen. History The company began as Taschen Comics, pu ...

Verlag, Köln, Germany 2010 {{Taxonbar, from=Q2711628 Trees of the Caribbean Trees of Central America Trees of South America Trees of Mexico Arecaceae genera Taxa named by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius