Ceroxylon ceriferum
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 Estado Aragua, Monumento Natural Cerro Codazzi, 1500 m asl, Venezuela. Photo by Dr. John Dransfield, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Palmweb. | |||||||
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Contents
Habitat and Distribution
Colombia, and Venezuela. In Venezuela, on the Cordillera de la Costa (Aragua, Miranda,
Description
Stem 7-10 (-25) m tall, 14.5-28.0 cm in diam., silverish, covered with a rather thin layer of wax. Leaves 8-12, horizontal or ascendant and arched; in a hemispheric crown, sometimes with on old leaf hanging; sheath 67-120 (-180) cm long, 5.0-6.5 cm wide at apex, covered with thick, brownish, persistent indumentum; petiole 15-50 × 4.5-5.0 cm, wide, adaxially concave to flat on top, glabrescent, or with persistent, scale bases and some remnant scales towards margins, rounded abaxially, covered with appressed, grey-brownish scales; rachis 180-330 cm long, twisted 90° on distal portion thereby holding the pinnae in a vertical position, adaxially flattened in ?-? of its length, then sharp, without a notorious hastula-like projection, the surface glabrescent with scarce remnants of scales, abaxially covered with thick and whitish indumentum; pinnae 86-116 on each side, regularly arranged in one plane, horizontal and straight to pendulous in the basal part of the leaf, the apices equilateral to briefly inequilateral by 0.2-0.5 cm, adaxial midrib and surface glabrous, abaxial midrib covered with one row of deciduous, translucent, thin, 1-7 mm scales, surface covered with silvery white to cream or brown, membranaceaous scales, immersed in furrows, arranged in closely adjacent, 0.1-0.3 mm wide rows, hiding leaf surface; the most basal filiform pinnae16-48 × 0.2-0.9 cm, basal pinnae (10th from base) 40-64 × 0.6-2.1 cm, middle pinnae 57-91 × 2.4-5.5 cm, (0.7-)1.8-2.8 (-4.0) cm apart, apical pinnae 17-25 × 0.2-0.8 cm, never united along margins. Staminate inflorescences 1 or 2 at one time, erect; peduncle 83-96 cm long, covered with light-brown indumentum; prophyll 34-36 cm long, 13-14 cm wide; peduncular bracts 6-7, 46-167 × 7-12 cm, covered with persistent, brown to light-brown indumentum, and an additional, smaller, more distally inserted, membranaceous bract; rachis 44-73 cm long, with 52-75 branches, rachis and branches glabrescent, longest branches 34-36 cm long.
Pistillate inflorescences 2-8 at one time, erect in flower, becoming arched and pendulous in fruit; peduncle 90-143 cm long, 1.6-3.0 cm wide at apex, toward the base covered with persistent, woolly, light brown indumentum, glabrescent and green toward the apex; prophyll 25-42 cm long, 9-12 cm wide at base; peduncular bracts 6, 38-169 × 7-11 cm, and an additional, smaller, more distally inserted, 9-25 cm bract, all bracts covered with thick, brown or grey indumentum; rachis 49-90 (-120) cm long, with 45-72 branches, subtended by a 0.5-3.2 mm long, membranaceous, acuminate bract, longest branches near the base, 26-49 cm, rachis and branches glabrescent.| read more |
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Staminate flowers: sepals 3 (-5), elliptical-acuminate, 1.0-1.5 mm, connate in 0.5 mm (1/3-½ of total length), reaching or exceeding edge of corolla tube; petals 3, elliptical-acuminate to alleznate, 3.5-6.0 mm, including a 1-2 mm acumen, connate in 0.5-1.0 mm; stamens (7-) 8-10 (-12), 3-6 antisepalous, and 3-6 (-9) antipetalous, filaments 1.8-2.0 mm, inserted at basal 2/5-3/5 portion of anther, anthers 2.0-2.2 mm long, connective not projected. Pistillate flowers: sepals 3, elliptical-acuminate, 1.0-1.5 mm long, connate in 0.8-1.0 mm (½-2/3 of the total length), not reaching edge of corolla tube; petals 3, elliptical-subulate, 4-5 mm, including a narrow, 1 mm acumen, connate up to 1 mm; staminodes 9-12, with very thick, 0.5 mm filaments, and abortive anthers 1.5-2.0 mm. Fruits globose, orange-red when ripe, 1.4-1.5 cm in diam., exocarp minutely granulose; fruiting perianth with sepals triangular-acuminate, 1-2 mm, connate in 0.5-1.0, lobes reaching or exceeding edge of corolla tube; petals elliptical-subulate, 3.5-5.0 mm long, including an acumen of 1 (-2) mm long, widened at base, connate in 0.8-1.5 mm. Seeds cabout 1 cm in diam. (John Dransfield in Phytotaxa 34 (2011))/Palmweb. Editing by edric. Ceroxylon ceriferum is diagnosed by having a crown with few leaves arched and twisted 90° on distal portion thereby holding the pinnae in a vertical position by its regularly arranged pinnae, almost horizontal and straight, small staminate flowers with 7 to 12 stamens, and fruit with exocarp minutely granulose. Karsten first proposed the name Klopstockia cerifera in 1847, in his monograph on the vegetative organs of palms, in which he included an illustration of a seedling. He sent a detailed description of the palm to Martius, who published it under the name Ceroxylon klopstockia, citing Karten?s letter and monograph. As Karsten's binomial is validly published, Martius- Ceroxylon klopstockia is illegitimate, being a superfluous name based on the same type. (John Dransfield in Phytotaxa 34 (2011))/Palmweb. |
Culture
Cold Hardiness Zone: 9a
Comments and Curiosities
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Conservation: In Venezuela, C. ceriferum has been recorded as Endangered according to the IUCN criteria, mainly due to the extraction of leaves for use during Palm Sunday in Holy Week, and demographic studies on this species have been seriously recommended (Llamosas et al. 2003). In Colombia the habitat of C. ceriferum has been altered to some extent, and the formerly large and healthy populations are today dramatically reduced. Fortunately, there are some areas of reserve that have been established in the last 20 years that protect some parts of the population. According to general observations, only populations on the steepest terrains have a well-developed structure, including different size classes, while those on the flat terrains consist of mostly old individuals with few seedlings and juveniles, since those areas were cutoff more than 20 years ago for agricultural purposes, and only the adults that were already present were left standing. The offspring that is present now at the area was probably produced by the adult individuals that attained sexual maturity in the last two decades. |
- IMAGE GALLERY
Estado Aragua, Monumento Natural Cerro Codazzi, 1500 m asl, Venezuela. Photo by Dr. John Dransfield, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Palmweb.
Monumento Natural Cerro Codazzi, Estado Aragua, Venezuela. Photo by Dr. John Dransfield, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Palmweb.
Estado Aragua, Monumento Natural Cerro Codazzi, 1500 m asl, Venezuela. Photo by Dr. John Dransfield, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Palmweb.
Estado Aragua, Monumento Natural Cerro Codazzi, 1500 m asl, Venezuela. Photo by Dr. John Dransfield, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Palmweb.
Estado Aragua, Monumento Natural Cerro Codazzi, 1500 m asl, Venezuela. Photo by Dr. John Dransfield, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Palmweb.
El Alaila, Venezuela. Photo by Dr. John Dransfield, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Palmweb.
Venezuela. Photo by Paul Craft.
Venezuela. Photo by Paul Craft.
Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia.
These palms are growing at 2000 mt.'s elevation; on the south face of the Venezuelan coastal range, in the state of Aragua, at Colonia Tovar. I think they also grow above Caracas at that elevation but not here in Carabobo as the mountains are just under 2000 mts elev.
Reserva El Dorado,Sierra de Santa Marta, Magdalena, Colombia.
Photo-Rare Palm Seeds.com
External Links
References
Phonetic spelling of Latin names by edric.
Special thanks to Geoff Stein, (Palmbob) for his hundreds of photos.
Special thanks to Palmweb.org, Dr. John Dransfield, Dr. Bill Baker & team, for their volumes of information and photos.
Glossary of Palm Terms; Based on the glossary in Dransfield, J., N.W. Uhl, C.B. Asmussen-Lange, W.J. Baker, M.M. Harley & C.E. Lewis. 2008. Genera Palmarum - Evolution and Classification of the Palms. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. All images copyright of the artists and photographers (see images for credits).
John Dransfield in Phytotaxa 34 (2011)
Many Special Thanks to Ed Vaile for his long hours of tireless editing and numerous contributions.
