Dypsis concinna

SUB CATEGORY PALMS OF MADAGASCAR

Habitat, Photo by Phil Arrowsmith.

Dypsis concinna

Habitat, Photo by Phil Arrowsmith.

Scientific Classification

Genus:	Dypsis
Species:	concinna

Synonyms

None set.

Native Continent

Africa

Morphology

Habit:	Solitary & clustering.
Leaf type:	Pinnate

Culture

Survivability index

Common names

None.

Habitat and Distribution

Endemic to Madagascar. Zahamena and the Moramanga/ Mantady area. Submontane rain forest, often with much bamboo; gentle slopes or ridge tops; alt. 800-1120 m.

Description

Solitary or clustering palm. STEMS to 2 m high, 5-8 mm in diam., erect or leaning, internodes 1-5 cm, densely to sparsely scaly with red-brown scales; nodal scars c. 1 mm. LEAVES 5-12 in the crown, porrect, within one population pinnate or entire (in Beentje 4535), shiny rich green; sheath 7-11 cm long, closed, densely to sparsely scaly with long laciniate reddish scales, with small auricles to 5 mm high and with laciniate-scaly margins; petiole absent or up to 3 cm long (to 9 cm in some entire leaves), 2-3 mm in diam., with scattered scales; rachis 11-29 cm long, in mid-leaf 1.5-2 mm wide, densely pubescent or with scattered scales on all surfaces; lamina when entire 13-30 x 3-5.3 cm, the lobes 4.5-21 x 1.5-2.4 cm, dentate over a width of 0.6-1 cm, the margins occasionally with a lacuna of 50-95% of the width between midrib and margin, with minute glands on minor veins, with 4-5 main veins; when pinnate with 11-25 leaflets on each side of the rachis, irregular or in groups of 2-7, in one plane, the group interval 1-6 cm, the leaflet interval 0.3-0.8 cm, the proximal leaflets 1-7 x 0.2-0.7 cm, median 3.5-10 x 0.4-1.3 cm, distal 2.5-6 x 0.3-1.7 cm, main vein 1, with faint or clear scattered scales on minor veins and distally with larger marginal scales, apices unequally acute to attenuate, terminal pair joined for 0.2-2.3 cm, with 2-3 main veins and dentate over a width of 0.4-1.5 cm, rarely with a large leaflet (10-12 x 1-1.5 cm) among the normal ones, either proximal or median, connate for up to 3.5 cm with the midrib. INFLORESCENCE interfoliar, branched to 1 order (rarely with up to three bifurcate rachillae), arching; peduncle 12-28 cm long, 1.5-2 mm in diam. distally, glabrous or densely red-pubescent (only in JD6435); prophyll 7-22 cm long, 3-6 mm wide, with scattered scales, borne at 2-10 cm above the base of the peduncle, open for 1-3 cm at the apex; peduncular bract often quickly deciduous, inserted at 6-15 cm from the base of the peduncle, 4-9 cm long, 3-4 mm wide, with scattered scales, open for the distal 1-4 cm; rarely a non-tubular peduncular bract near the apex of the peduncle, 3-12 mm long; rachis absent or up to 10 cm long, with 2-9 rachillae (and occasionally with 1-3 more branched ones at the base of the rachis); rachillae 3-12 cm long, 1-1.5 mm in diam., glabrous, with distant superficial triads. STAMINATE FLOWERS with sepals 0.6-1.1 x 0.7-1.3 mm, the middle one sometimes very asymmetrical; petals 1.5-2 x 1.1-1.4 mm; stamens 6, biseriate (offset 0.1-0.2 mm), the filaments 0.6-0.8 mm, thin, with anthers 0.9-1.3 x 0.3-0.6 mm, parallel and dorsifixed; pistillode 0.5-0.8 mm high, 0.2-0.4 mm in diam., conical. PISTILLATE FLOWERS with sepals 0.8-1.3 x 0.8-1.8 mm; petals 2.3-3 x 1.7-3 mm; staminodes 6, 0.2-0.6 mm; pistil 2.2-2.3 x 1.2-1.8 mm. FRUIT red, ellipsoid, 6-16 x 3.5-7 mm, with fibrous endocarp, the fibres anastomosing little. SEED 5.5-8.5 x 3-4.5 mm, obtuse at both ends; endosperm homogeneous. Editing by edric.

One of the syntypes of N. concinna, Baron 1286, is D. heterophylla. These taxa are close, there is an overlap in variation, but still our feeling is that they are distinct species. N. microphylla Becc. was distinguished from N. concinna by having only one inflorescence bract; it was put into synonymy by Jumelle in 1929. In the same publication N. tenuisecta was synonymized, and N. triangularis was reduced to a form of N. concinna. Perrier erroneously cited this taxon in the Flora (1945) as var. triangularis Jumelle. These entire-leaved forms are quite variable in their degree of lobing. Dransfield et al. JD6435 has almost regular leaflets. Anosibe-an-Ala: confluence of Onive and Mangoro R., Feb. 1925 (y.fr.), Perrier 17217 (P) has the sheath 6.2 cm long; the lobes 3-4.5 x 3-3.5 cm; and the rachillae are puberulous rather than glabrous; it has the look of a slightly strange D. concinna. Dequaire 27728 (piste de Besalana, possibly Ifanadiana/Ambohimanga area?) is probably D. concinna, but has the rachis 42.5 cm with 28 leaflets on each side, the median to 10.5 cm long; the peduncular bract is 10.3-10.5 cm long, the inflorescence rachis 4.5-7.5 cm, the rachillae to 12.5-14 cm long, or to 18 cm long in fruit. Cours 4713 (Didy to Brickaville) has 3-9 branched rachillae, a longer rachis than normal, and more leaflets than normal. This is an extreme form of D. concinna; the few specimens with bifurcate proximal rachillae (Rakotovao RN 12115, Cours 4410) already have slightly longer rachis and slightly more leaflets than the stricly 1order branched specimens. Cours 2312 (Andringitra massif, Ambodibaiso forest, Jan. 1945 in bud and fruit, P) looks like this taken to extremes: it is described as 7 m high and being used to make blowpipes; the leaf sheath is 17 cm, its inflorescence branches to 2 orders with a rachis of 5-20 cm and 3-5 branched + 6-10 unbranched first order branches. It certainly cannot be called D. concinna any more but does not match anything else either. (J. Dransfield and H. Beentje. 1995).

Culture

Comments and Curiosities

A species with very narrow leaves which is locally common over a fairly small area. JD has seen beautiful plants of this species in cultivation in Queensland; it is most decorative and appears to be easily cultivated. The name concinna is Latin for neat or pretty. (J. Dransfield and H. Beentje. 1995).

Conservation: Vulnerable. Although the species is common at Analamazaotra, its distribution area is small. (J. Dransfield and H. Beentje. 1995).