''Acoelorraphe'' is a genus of palms with a single

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

''Acoelorraphe wrightii'', known as the Paurotis palm, Everglades palm or Madeira palm in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

World Checklist of Palms
''Acoelorrhaphe''
Germplasm Resources Information Network
''Acoelorrhaphe wrightii''
/ref>International Plant Names Index (IPNI)
''Acoelorrhaphe''
/ref> and cubas, tique, and papta in Spanish. The genus name is sometimes spelt as ''Acoelorrhaphe'' or ''Acoelorhaphe'', which are treated by

orthographical variant In biology, within the science of scientific nomenclature, i.e. the naming of organisms, an orthographical variant (abbreviated orth. var.) in botany or an orthographic error in zoology, is a spelling mistake, typing mistake or writing mistake with ...

s by the

International Plant Names Index The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) describes itself as "a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and lycophytes." Coverage of plant names is best at the rank of species and genus. It inclu ...

Description

It is a small to moderately tall palm that grows in clusters to , rarely tall, with slender stems less than diameter. The leaves are

palmate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...

(fan-shaped), with segments joined to each other for about half of their length, and are wide, light-green above, and silver underneath. The leaf petiole is long, and has orange, curved, sharp teeth along the edges. The flowers are minute, inconspicuous and greenish, with 6

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s. The

trunk Trunk may refer to: Biology * Trunk (anatomy), synonym for torso * Trunk (botany), a tree's central superstructure * Trunk of corpus callosum, in neuroanatomy * Elephant trunk, the proboscis of an elephant Computing * Trunk (software), in rev ...

is covered with fibrous matting. The fruit is

pea The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the flowering plant species ''Pisum sativum''. Each pod contains several peas, which can be green or yellow. Botanically, pea pods are fruit, since they contain seeds and d ...

-sized, starting orange and turning to black at maturity.''Flora of North America''
genus account
an
species account
/ref>Huxley, A., ed. (1992). ''New RHS Dictionary of Gardening''. Macmillan .

Taxonomy

The genus name is a combination of three Greek words meaning ''a-'' 'without', ' 'hollow', and ' 'needle', an allusion to the form of the fruit. The species is named after the American botanist Charles Wright.Grisebach, August H. R. (1866) Catalogus Plantarum Cubensium

Distribution and habitat

It is native to

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

, southeastern

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 ...

, the

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 ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

, the Bahamas, and extreme southern Florida where it grows close to sea level in thin, rocky soil over limestone in wet areas and swamps of the

Everglades The Everglades is a natural region of tropical climate, tropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm. The system begins near Orland ...

Cultivation and uses

The Paurotis palm was formerly plentiful in the Florida

, but many plants were taken for the nursery trade. The palm is now protected in the wild by Florida law and its numbers are increasing again. Trees propagated from seed or by sawing apart the base of a cluster are available in nurseries. It is hardy to central and southern Florida and is cultivated as a landscape palm.Bush, Charles S. and Morton, Julia F. (1969) Native Trees and Plants for Florida Landscaping (pp.11-12). Department of Agriculture - State of Florida.

Gallery

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q16060543, from2=Q140088 Livistoninae Trees of the Caribbean Trees of Central America Trees of Northern America Trees of the Bahamas Trees of Colombia Monotypic Arecaceae genera Garden plants of North America Taxa named by August Grisebach Taxa named by Hermann Wendland