Livistona endauensis

Livistona (liv-iss-TOH-nah) endauensis (en-dow-EN-sis)
Photo-Malaysian Biological Diversity
Scientific Classification
Genus: Livistona (liv-iss-TOH-nah) Species: endauensis (en-dow-EN-sis)
Synonyms
None set.
Native Continent
Asia
Morphology
Habit: Solitary Leaf type: Palmate
Culture
Survivability index
Common names
Serdang Endau

Habitat and Distribution

Malaysia. In Johore at Ulu Endau, on Gunung Janing, Gunung Janing Barat and Bukit Peta, and the eastern hills of Trengganu at Bukit Bauk. In rainforest at 90-660 m alt.

Endau-Rompin National Park, Malaysia

Description

Hermaphroditic, Solitary palm. Trunk to 15 m tall, 12-20 cm in diameter; breast high, leaf scars obscure, internodes narrow, pale grey brown, petiole stubs at first persistent at the base only, but deciduous with age, vertical fissures shallow. Leaves about 75 in a globose to conical crown; petiole about 175 cm long, arching, orange to reddish-brown, about 15 mm wide by 12 mm wide, triangular in cross-section, adaxially concave, covered in thin, caducous, grey-brown indumentum, margins unarmed in the distal half, armed in the proximal half with single retrorsely recurved black spines, regularly spaced, 10- 14 mm long, 6-15 mm apart, distally becoming more widely separated; leaf-base fibres prominent, coarse, disintegrating; distally the fibres form a triangular, chocolate-brown appendage to 35 cm long, to 10 cm wide; lamina costapalmate, regularly segmented, circular to subcircular in outline, about 100 cm long, slightly undulate, adaxially bright green, abaxially lighter green, glabrous on both surfaces; lamina divided for about 61% of its length, with 60-70 segments, depth of apical cleft about 8% of the segment length, apical lobes rigid to occasionally pendulous through damage or age; midleaf segments about 3 cm wide where the segments diverge; outer segments about 0.8 cm wide where the segments diverge; parallel veins 4-5 each side of mid rib; transverse veins thinner than parallel veins; hastula conspicuous, about 10 mm high, triangular, crescent shaped. Inflorescences unbranched at the base, to 150 cm long, not extending beyond the limit of the crown, arching, branched to 3 orders; partial inflorescences about 8; peduncle about 60 cm long, laterally compressed at the base, 3 cm wide by 0.5 cm thick, about 2.5 cm wide distally by 1.0 cm thick; prophyll tubular, 30 cm long by 2.5 cm thick, dark brown, glabrous except for scattered caducous rust coloured indumentum; peduncular bract(s) lacking; rachis bracts tubular, glabrous; partial inflorescences to about 35 cm long; rachillae 6-10 cm long, about 0.25 cm in diameter, rigid, yellow, pubescent. Flowers solitary or in clusters of 2-3, sessile, globular, about 1 mm high, 1.5 mm wide, golden yellow; calyx basally tubular, ca 0.3 mm high, glabrous, 3-lobed, lobes triangular to 0.4 mm long by 1 mm wide; petals broadly triangular, to 1 mm long by 0.8 mm wide, glabrous, abaxially rugulate, adaxially striate; stamens basally fused to form a tube about 0.4 mm high; filaments very short, free; anthers about 0.1 mm in diam.; carpels about 0.6 mm high, style to about 0.2 mm high, stigma punctiform. Fruit obovoid to pyriform, about 16 mm long, 14 mm wide, bluish green; epicarp smooth, wrinkled on drying; mesocarp about 2 mm wide; endocarp crustaceous about 1 mm wide; pedicel 1-2 mm long. Seed globose, about 1 cm in diam., intruded shallowly by the testa. Eophyll 5-ribbed. (Dowe, J.L.)/Palmweb. Editing by edric.

Livistona endauensis was described by Dransfield and Wong (1987), from a population on Gunung Janing in the Ulu Endau area, Johore, Malaysia, based on the collection Dransfield JD5089. In the protologue, a population of a then unidentified Livistona in Trengganu was compared to this taxon, though maintained as distinct pending further study. Subsequent examination of collections from Trengganu confirmed it as the same taxon, and therefore giving the species a disjunct range in eastern Peninsular Malaysia. Livistona endauensis is a moderate sub-canopy palm to 15 m tall; leaves are large and regularly segmented; segment apices are rigid to pendulous, and with a bifurcate cleft to 8% of the segment length; the inflorescence is unbranched, not extending beyond the limit of the crown, and with about 8 partial inflorescences; bracts are loosely tubular; flowers are golden yellow; fruit are obovoid to pyriform, to 16mm long to 14 mm wide, and bluish green at maturity. (Dowe, J.L.)/Palmweb.

Comments and Curiosities

Phenology: Flowers all year; fruits all year.

Conservation: Lower risk, near threatened. (Dowe, J.L.)/Palmweb.

A magnificent and rare, mid-sized Livistona found only in forests in the Endau-Rompin area of peninsular Malaysia, where it grows along ridgetops and on steep slopes on shallow soils. It forms a slender smooth trunk that carries a dense crown of glossy green leaves with rather stiff segments. It is best suited for cultivation in the tropics or in frost free warm temperate climates. (RPS.com)