Pritchardia
From Free net encyclopedia
Current revision
{{Taxobox
| color = lightgreen
| name = Pritchardia
| image = Pritchardia_flowers.jpg
| image_width = 240px
| image_caption = Pritchardia sp. flowers and fruit
on two pendulous stalks
| regnum = Plantae
| divisio = Magnoliophyta
| classis = Liliopsida
| ordo = Arecales
| familia = Arecaceae
| genus = Pritchardia
| genus_authority = Seem. & H.Wendl.
| subdivision_ranks = Species
| subdivision =
About 24-40 species, including:
Pritchardia affinis
Pritchardia gaudichaudii
Pritchardia lanigera
Pritchardia martii - loulu hiwa
Pritchardia munroi
Pritchardia pacifica
Pritchardia remota
Pritchardia viscosa
}}
The Genus Pritchardia (Family Arecaceae) consists of between 24-40 species of fan palms (Arecaceae tribe Corypheae) found on tropical Pacific Ocean islands in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Tuamotus, and Hawai‘i. These are large palms typically reaching heights of 30 or 40 m. The leaves are fan-shaped (costapalmate) and the trunk columnar, naked, smooth or fibrous, longitudinally grooved, and obscurely ringed by leaf scars. The flowers and subsequent fruit are borne in a terminal cluster with simple or compound branches of an arcuate or pendulous inflorescence that (in some species) is longer than the leaves.
Nineteen taxa of Pritchardia are endemic to the Hawaiian Islands, with the remainder on other Pacific island groups.