Geonomateae (also Geonomeae) is a palm tribe in the subfamily
Arecoideae. It is an important
Neotropic
The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone.
Definition
In bioge ...
al group due to its wide distribution across Central and South America, its diversity and abundance, and the use of a number of species by local human populations. The distribution of the tribe stretches from southeast Mexico down through Central America and into South America, notably
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, and species are also found in the Greater and Lesser
Antilles
The Antilles (; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Antiy; es, Antillas; french: Antilles; nl, Antillen; ht, Antiy; pap, Antias; Jamaican Patois: ''Antiliiz'') is an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mex ...
. This tribe consists of a group of understory and sub-canopy palms that populate both tropical lowland and
montane forest
Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial ...
s. While members of this group are relatively easy to collect, as they are not canopy palms or spiny palms, and are well represented in
herbaria
A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study.
The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...
, the taxonomy and phylogeny of the species within the tribe are still uncertain. The resolution of the tribe has been disputed despite the fact that tribe's species are characterized by three morphological
synapomorphies: the petals of pistillate flowers are basally connate, the presence of slender and elongate
styles, and the flowers are borne in pits in the
rachillae.
[Uhl and Dransfield 1987 as cited by Roncal, J. Francisco-Ortega, C.B. Asmussen, and C.E. Lewis (2005). 'Molecular phylogenetics of the tribe Geonomeae (Arecaceae) using nuclear DNA sequences of Phosphoribulokinase and RNA Polymerase II'. (Systematic Botany 30(2): 275–283)]
Genera
Genera in the tribe are:
*''
Welfia'' – Central America, Colombia, Ecuador
*''
Pholidostachys'' – NW South America, Panama, Costa Rica
*''
Calyptrogyne'' – Central America
*''
Calyptronoma'' – Greater Antilles
*''
Asterogyne'' – northern South America, Central America
*''
Geonoma'' – Americas
See also
*
List of Arecaceae genera
This is a list of all the genera in the botanical family Arecaceae, the palm family, based on Baker & Dransfield (2016), which is a revised listing of genera given in the 2008 edition of ''Genera Palmarum''.
Taxonomy
This is a list of all the g ...
References
External links
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q1503297, from2=Q5877706
Monocot tribes