Latania

Latan palm
Red Latan Palm
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Monocots
(unranked): Commelinids
Order: Arecales
Family: Arecaceae
Subfamily: Coryphoideae
Tribe: Borasseae
Subtribe: Lataniinae
Genus: Latania
Comm. ex Juss.
Synonyms[1]

Cleophora Gaertn.

Latania, commonly known as Latan palm or Latania palm, is a genus of flowering plant in the palm tree family, native to the Mascarene Islands in the western Indian Ocean.[1][2]

The genus contains contains three species, one from each of the three major islands (including islets) in the chain. All species have been ranked as Endangered by the IUCN.[3]

  1. Latania loddigesii Mart. - (Blue Latan Palm, Latanier de l'Ile Ronde) from Mauritius
  2. Latania lontaroides (Gaertn.) H.E.Moore - (Red Latan Palm, Latanier de la Réunion) from Réunion
  3. Latania verschaffeltii Lem. - (Yellow Latan Palm, Latanier de Rodrigues) from Rodrigues Island

Latan palms are large, single-stemmed fan palms with separate male and female plants (dioecy); when the leaves fall, they leave scars on the trunks. Male flowers are small, in clusters, and emerge from within leathery bracts on the catkin-like inflorescences. Female flowers are larger, solitary and not concealed within bracts. The fruits contain 1-3 pyrenes, which are seeds enclosed within woody endocarps.[4] The endocarps have sculpted surfaces and the three species are readily distinguished from their pyrenes.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
  2. ↑ Govaerts, R. & Dransfield, J. (2005). World Checklist of Palms: 1-223. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  3. ↑ "Latania conservation status". www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
  4. ↑ Dransfield, John; Uhl, Natalie W.; Asmussen, Conny B.; Baker, William J.; Harley, Madeline M.; Lewis, Carl E. (2008). Genera Palmarum - Evolution and Classification of Palms. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. ISBN 978-1842461822.
  5. ↑ Bayton, Ross P. Borassus L. and the borassoid palms - systematics and evolution (PhD Thesis). University of Reading.


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