Basselinia tomentosa

Basselinia (bas-seh-lin-EE-ah) tomentosa (toh-men-TOH-sah)
Plateau de Dogny, 1000 m., New Caledonia.
Scientific Classification
Genus: Basselinia (bas-seh-lin-EE-ah) Species: tomentosa (toh-men-TOH-sah)
Synonyms
Kentia deplanchei.
Native Continent
Oceania
Morphology
Habit: Solitary Leaf type: Pinnate
Culture
Survivability index
Common names
None.

Habitat and Distribution

Basselinia tomentosa occurs in the southern part of Grande Terre, New Caledonia.

Plateau de Dogny, 1000 m., New Caledonia.

In the forest more or less open areas, and in the bush. Substrate: On ground more or less eroded, or rocky ultramafic substrate.

Description

Large solitary palm, up to 20 m high with a trunk brown, 15 to 25 cm in diam., robust, covered with leaf ciactrices barely marked. Trunk type: crownshaft. Flower spathe emerges from beneath crownshaft. Very full erect leaves, diametrically opposed, evenly spaced pinnae. Leaves, 5 to 10 per crown, ascending and spreading, 7-70 cm long, with 10-11 pinnae, leathery and glossy, dark green above, pale green beneath, sheath 12 to 20 cm long, dark red to purple dark outside, first covered with blackish scales and glabrous. Phenology (flower): An inflorescence, 11 to 40 cm long, long persistent, erect and radiant, 2-3 times branched, entirely covered with scales noiâtres or dark red, becoming glabrous with age. Fruit: Fruit more or less spherical, 7-8 x 5-6 mm, with the stigmatic residue displaced toward the middle, brown seed of 4 mm in dia. Editing by edric.

Culture

Requirements: Consistently moist soil, partial shade, full sun when mature.