''Ptychosperma macarthurii'', commonly known as the Macarthur palm, is a species of tree in the palm family Arecaceae. Its native range is northern

Cape York Peninsula Cape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest unspoiled wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth’s last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupació ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

with a number of disjunct populations in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

and

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

. The species has been widely planted in tropical areas and is commonly grown as an indoor plant.

Description

''P. macarthurii'' is a clumping (multi-stemmed) palm growing to a height of . The slender stems measure up to in diameter and have prominent leaf scars encircling the trunk. They are green in the younger sections of the trunk just below the

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 (most notable being ''Roystonea regia'' or the royal palm but also including the genera ''Areca' ...

, but may be greyish lower down. The crown consists of between 3 to 13

paripinnate Pinnation (also called pennation) is the arrangement of feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis. Pinnation occurs in biological morphology, in crystals, such as some forms of ice or metal crystals, and in ...

frond A frond is a large, divided leaf. In both common usage and botanical nomenclature, the leaves of ferns are referred to as fronds and some botanists restrict the term to this group. Other botanists allow the term frond to also apply to the lar ...

s to in length, with 15-40

pinnae The auricle or auricula is the visible part of the ear that is outside the head. It is also called the pinna (Latin for "wing" or " fin", plural pinnae), a term that is used more in zoology. Structure The diagram shows the shape and location ...

(leaflets) on either side of the

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 ...

(midrib), and have a crownshaft which measures about long. The leaflets measure up to in length, are regularly or irregularly arranged (often clustered), with nearly parallel margins and a truncated

tip Tip commonly refers to: * Tip (gambling) * Tip (gratuity) * Tip (law enforcement) * another term for Advice (opinion), Advice Tip or TIP may also refer to: Science and technology * Tank phone, a device allowing infantry to communicate with the oc ...

. They are mid green on the upper surface and lighter below. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

s are up to long and branched 2 to 3 times. Flowers are grouped in sets of 3, each with one

pistillate Gynoecium (; ) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl (botany), whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or m ...

(functionally female) set between two

staminate 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 ...

(functionally male) flowers. They are yellow-green to light-green with 3 sepals and 3 petals; staminate flowers are long by wide with 23-40 stamens, pistilate flowers measure about and have 3-6 staminodes and a recurved stigma. Fruits of ''Ptychosperma macarthurii'' measure up to long and wide, are bright red when ripe and the remains of the stigma is attached at one end. There is a thin layer of flesh around the solitary seed, which is about long with five deep longitudinal grooves.

Taxonomy

''Ptychosperma macarthurii'' was originally described from a specimen collected by Thomas Reedy, a "gardener" on the

Chevert Expedition of 1875 The ''Chevert'' expedition was a scientific expedition to collect natural history samples from New Guinea and the Torres Strait. It was led and financed by William John Macleay, the first president of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. ''Che ...

whose presence on the expedition was sponsored by Sir

William Macarthur The Honourable Sir William Macarthur (December 1800 – 29 October 1882) was an Australian botanist and vigneron. He was one of the most active and influential horticulturists in Australia in the mid-to-late 19th century. Among the first vitic ...

, one of the most active and influential horticulturists in Australia in the mid-to-late 19th century. Macarthur forwarded the specimen to the

Veitch Nurseries The Veitch Nurseries were the largest group of family-run plant nurseries in Europe during the 19th century. Started by John Veitch sometime before 1808, the original nursery grew substantially over several decades and was eventually split into t ...

in England, where

Harry Veitch Sir Harry James Veitch (24 June 1840 – 6 July 1924) was an eminent English horticulturist in the nineteenth century, who was the head of the family nursery business, James Veitch & Sons, based in Chelsea, London. He was instrumental in establi ...

described the plant and asked

Hermann Wendland Hermann Wendland (October 11, 1825 in Herrenhausen – January 12, 1903 in Hanover) was a German botanist and gardener. He was a noted authority on the family Arecaceae (palms), on which he published a major monograph which formed the basis for ...

to name it in honour of Macarthur. Wendland named it ''Kentia macarthurii'' H. Wendl. ex H.J.Veitch, but shortly after, in 1884,

Joseph Dalton Hooker Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of ...

published it as ''Ptychosperma macarthurii'' (H.Wendl. ex H.J.Veitch) H.Wendl. ex Hook. f.. In a 1909 paper by H.J.Wigman the species was classified as ''Actinophloeus macarthurii'' Becc. ex Wigman but without any elaboration on the description. In 1935 that genus was synonymised with ''Ptychosperma'' and the former (and current) name was reinstated.

Darwin palm

The outlying populations of this species to the east and southeast of Darwin were long accepted as the separate species ''Ptychosperma bleeserii'' (known as the Darwin palm) as described in 1928 by

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 Prussian Rhine Province. He originally studied law at Lausanne and Munic ...

in the journal ''Repertorium Specierum Novarum Regni Vegetabilis''. However in 2003 Dixon ''et al.'' published a treatment that synonymised ''P. bleeseri'' with ''P. macarthurii'', a treatment accepted by the Australian botanist

John Leslie Dowe John Leslie Dowe is an Australian botanistIPNI: John Leslie Dowe
''The Interna ...

, and subsequently published in the online Flora of Australia.

Etymolgy

The genus name ''Ptychosperma'' is derived from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

word '' ptukhḗ'', meaning "a fold"; and '' spérma'', "seed". The species epithet ''macarthurii'' is in honour of Macarthur.

Distribution and habitat

Distribution of this species is mainly clustered in northern Cape York Peninsula, from around Silver Plains (north of Princess Charlotte Bay), north to the top of the peninsula, some

Torres Strait Islands The Torres Strait Islands are a group of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of , but their total land ...

and into southern New Guinea. There is also a small cluster of populations in the Northern Territory, on the western margins of the

Adelaide River The Adelaide River is a river in the Northern Territory of Australia. Course and features The river rises in the Litchfield National Park and flows generally northwards to Clarence Strait, joined by eight tributaries including the west branc ...

floodplains and the nearby Howard River, near Darwin.

Conservation

''P. macarthurii'' is classified as

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and in ...

in the Northern Territory where its distribution is limited, but in Queensland it is listed as

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

. it is not listed on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

References

External links

* See
map of observations
of ''P. macarthurii'' at the Australian Virtual Herbarium. * Biography o

at the Encyclopedia of Australian Science {{Taxonbar, from=Q4047614 macarthurii Palms of Australia Flora of the Northern Territory Flora of Queensland Flora of New Guinea Plants described in 1879 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN