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Pachycauls are
Pachycauls are plant
Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...
s with a disproportionately thick trunk for their height, and few branches. This can be the product of exceptional primary growth
In botany, secondary growth is the growth that results from cell division in the cambium (botany), cambia or lateral meristems and that causes the Plant stem, stems and roots to thicken, while primary growth is growth that occurs as a result of ...
(as with palms and cycads
Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk with a crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants of a species are either male or ...
) or disproportioate secondary growth
In botany, secondary growth is the growth that results from cell division in the cambia or lateral meristems and that causes the stems and roots to thicken, while primary growth is growth that occurs as a result of cell division at the tips of ...
as with Adansonia
''Adansonia'' is a genus made up of eight species of medium-to-large deciduous trees known as baobabs ( or ). They are placed in the Malvaceae family, subfamily Bombacoideae. They are native to Madagascar, mainland Africa, and Australia.Tropic ...
. The word is derived from the Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
''pachy-'' meaning thick or stout, and Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
''caulis'' meaning the stem. All of the tree (and treelike) species of cactus
A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek ...
are pachycauls, as are most palms, Cycads
Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk with a crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants of a species are either male or ...
and pandans
''Pandanus'' is a genus of monocots with some 750 accepted species. They are palm-like, dioecious trees and shrubs native to the Old World tropics and subtropics. The greatest number of species are found in Madagascar and Malaysia. Common names ...
. The most extreme pachycauls are the floodplains, or riverbottom variety of the African Palmyra (Borassus aethiopum
''Borassus aethiopum'' is a species of '' Borassus'' palm from Africa. In English it is variously referred to as African fan palm, African palmyra palm, deleb palm, ron palm, toddy palm, black rhun palm, rônier palm (from the French). It is wide ...
) with primary growth
In botany, secondary growth is the growth that results from cell division in the cambium (botany), cambia or lateral meristems and that causes the Plant stem, stems and roots to thicken, while primary growth is growth that occurs as a result of ...
up to seven feet (2.1 meters) in thickness, and the Coquito Palm (Jubaea chilensis
''Jubaea'' is a genus of palms with one species, ''Jubaea chilensis'' or ''Jubaea spectabilis'', commonly known in English as the Chilean wine palm or Chile cocopalm, and palma chilena in Spanish. It is native to southwestern South America and i ...
) with primary growth up to six feet (1.8 meters) thick. The most pachycaulous cycad is Cycas thouarsii at up to five feet (150 centimeters) in diameter. The tallest pachycaul is the Andean Wax Palm (Ceroxylon quindiuense
''Ceroxylon quindiuense'', often called Quindío wax palm, is a palm native to the humid montane forests of the Andes in Colombia and northern Peru.
Description
This palm species can grow to a height of —or rarely, even as high as . It i ...
) at up to 220 feet (66 meters). and about 16 inches (41 cm) in diameter. The most pachycaulous cactus is the Bisnaga (Echinocactus platyacanthus
''Echinocactus platyacanthus'', also known as the giant barrel cactus, golden barrel cactus, giant viznaga, or biznaga de dulce, is a species of cactus (family Cactaceae). It is native to central Mexico in the Chihuahuan Desert. This species is t ...
) with primary growth up to 4 ft 4 in (1.3 meters) in diameter. The largest caudex type pachycaul is the African Baobab (Adansonia digitata
''Adansonia digitata'', the African baobab, is the most widespread tree species of the genus ''Adansonia'', the baobabs, and is native to the African continent and the southern Arabian Peninsula (Yemen, Oman). These are long-lived pachycauls; ra ...
). One called the Glencoe Tree at Hoedspruit, South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
has a basal diameter (not girth) of 52 ft 2 in (16 meters). This tree suffered a severe trauma and is dying.
Examples occur in the genera
*'' Pachycormus'' (Anacardiaceae
The Anacardiaceae, commonly known as the cashew family or sumac family, are a family of flowering plants, including about 83 genera with about 860 known species. Members of the Anacardiaceae bear fruits that are drupes and in some cases produce ...
)
*''Adenium
''Adenium'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Apocynaceae first described as a genus in 1819. It is native to Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.
Cultivation and uses
''Adenium obesum'' is grown as a houseplant in temperate and tropica ...
''
*''Pachypodium
''Pachypodium'' is a genus of succulent spine-bearing trees and shrubs, native to Madagascar and Africa. It belongs to the family Apocynaceae.
Genus characteristics
All ''Pachypodium'' are succulent plants that exhibit, to varying degrees, the ...
'' (Apocynaceae
Apocynaceae (from ''Apocynum'', Greek for "dog-away") is a family of flowering plants that includes trees, shrubs, herbs, stem succulents, and vines, commonly known as the dogbane family, because some taxa were used as dog poison Members of the ...
)
*''Dendrosenecio
''Dendrosenecio'' is a genus of flowering plants in the Asteraceae, sunflower family. It is a segregate (taxonomy), segregate of ''Senecio'', in which it formed the subgenus ''Dendrosenecio''. Its members, the giant groundsels, are native to the ...
'' (Asteraceae
The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...
)
*''Bursera
''Bursera'' is a genus with about 100 described species of flowering shrubs and trees varying in size up to high. It is the type genus for Burseraceae. The trees are native (often for many species endemic) to the Americas, from the southern Uni ...
'' (Burseraceae
The Burseraceae are a moderate-sized family of 17-19 genera and about 540 species of flowering plants. The actual numbers differ according to the time period in which a given source is written describing this family. The Burseraceae are also know ...
)
*'' Cyanea''
*''Lobelia
''Lobelia'' () is a genus of flowering plants comprising 415 species, with a subcosmopolitan distribution primarily in tropical to warm temperate regions of the world, a few species extending into cooler temperate regions.Huxley, A., ed. (1992 ...
'' (Campanulaceae
The family Campanulaceae (also bellflower family), of the order Asterales, contains nearly 2400 species in 84 genera of herbaceous plants, shrubs, and rarely small trees, often with milky sap. Among them are several familiar garden plants belon ...
)
*''Dendrosicyos
''Dendrosicyos'' is a monotypic genus in the plant family (biology), family Cucurbitaceae. The only species is ''Dendrosicyos socotranus'', the cucumber tree. The species is endemism, endemic to the island of Socotra in Yemen, and is the only spe ...
'' (Cucurbitaceae
The Cucurbitaceae, also called cucurbits or the gourd family, are a plant family consisting of about 965 species in around 95 genera, of which the most important to humans are:
*''Cucurbita'' – squash, pumpkin, zucchini, some gourds
*''Lagena ...
)
*''Givotia
Ricinodendreae is a tribe of the subfamily Crotonoideae, under the family Euphorbiaceae. It comprises 3 genera.
* ''Givotia'' (from east Africa, Madagascar, India and Sri Lanka),
**'' Givotia gosai''
**'' Givotia madagascariensis''
**'' Gi ...
'' (Euphorbiaceae
Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of a genus in the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', are herbs, but some, e ...
)
*'' Delonix'' ()
*'' Fouquieria'' ( Fouquieriaceae)
*''Adansonia
''Adansonia'' is a genus made up of eight species of medium-to-large deciduous trees known as baobabs ( or ). They are placed in the Malvaceae family, subfamily Bombacoideae. They are native to Madagascar, mainland Africa, and Australia.Tropic ...
''
*''Bombax
''Bombax'' is a genus of mainly tropical trees in the mallow family. They are native to western Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and the subtropical regions of East Asia and northern Australia. It is distinguished from the genu ...
''
*'' Brachychiton''
*''Cavanillesia
''Cavanillesia'' is a genus of trees in the family Malvaceae. It is native to Panama and South America.
Taxonomy
''Cavanillesia'' consists of 5 species so far:
* '' Cavanillesia arborea''
* '' Cavanillesia chicamochae''
* ''Cavanillesia hy ...
''
*''Ceiba
''Ceiba'' is a genus of trees in the family Malvaceae, native to tropical and subtropical areas of the Americas (from Mexico and the Caribbean to N Argentina) and tropical West Africa. Some species can grow to tall or more, with a straight, la ...
'' (Malvaceae
Malvaceae, or the mallows, is a family of flowering plants estimated to contain 244 genera with 4225 known species. Well-known members of economic importance include okra, cotton, cacao and durian. There are also some genera containing familiar ...
)
*''Dorstenia
''Dorstenia'' is a genus within the mulberry family, Moraceae. Depending on the author, there are said to be 100 to 170 species within this genus, second only in number to the genus ''Ficus'' within Moraceae. ''Dorstenia'' species are mainly kno ...
'' (Moraceae
The Moraceae — often called the mulberry family or fig family — are a family of flowering plants comprising about 38 genera and over 1100 species. Most are widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, less so in temperate climates; however ...
)
*''Cyphostemma
''Cyphostemma'' is a flowering plant genus in the family Vitaceae, with around 250 species distributed throughout the tropics and subtropics. These species are caudiciform and used to belong to the genus ''Cissus''. The genus name comes from Gre ...
'' (Vitaceae
The Vitaceae are a family of flowering plants, with 14 genera and around 910 known species, including common plants such as grapevines (''Vitis'' spp.) and Virginia creeper (''Parthenocissus quinquefolia''). The family name is derived from the ge ...
).
See also
*Caudex
A caudex (plural: caudices) of a plant is a stem, but the term is also used to mean a rootstock and particularly a basal stem structure from which new growth arises.pages 456 and 695
In the strict sense of the term, meaning a stem, "caudex" is m ...
References
Plant morphology Plant anatomy {{botany-stub