''Nannorrhops ritchiana'', the Mazari palm, is the sole species in the genus ''Nannorrhops'' in the palm family
Arecaceae
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 ...
.
Distribution
It is native to southwestern
Asia, in the historical region of Balochistan, from the southeast of the
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...
east through
Iran and
Afghanistan to
Pakistan, growing at altitudes of up to 1,600 m.
[Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families]
/ref>[Mosti, S., Raffaelli, M. & Tardelli, M. (2006). A contribution to the flora of Wadi Abdur (Dhofar, Southern Oman). Webbia: Journal of Plant Taxonomy and Geography 61: 253-260.]
Description
It is a shrub-like clumping palm, with several stems growing from a single base. The stems grow slowly and often tightly together, reaching or more tall. It is a fan palm (Arecaceae tribe Corypheae), with the leaves
A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...
with a long, smooth (unspined) petiole terminating in a rounded fan of 20–30 leaflets, long, with a distinct glaucous blue-green to grey-green colour.
The flowers are borne in tall, open clusters up to long at the top of the stems; it is usually dioecious
Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproductio ...
with male and female flowers on separate plants. The fruit is a brown drupe
In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...
. The individual stems are monocarpic, dying back to the ground after flowering, with the plant continuing growth from basal sprouts.
It is one of the hardier palms, tolerating winter frosts down to about (possibly even ), though it requires very hot summers for good growth
It can be grown in USDA zones 6-11.
It is occasionally grown as an ornamental plant in southern Europe and southern North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
, but is not widely cultivated.
References
External links
*
Fairchild Guide to Palms: ''Nannorrhops''
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q21445547, from2=Q138285
Coryphoideae
Monotypic Arecaceae genera
Flora of Pakistan
Flora of Iran
Flora of Afghanistan
Flora of the Arabian Peninsula
Dioecious plants