Phoenix loureiroi var. loureiroi

Phoenix (FEH-niks) loureiroi (loo-rare-OH-ee) var. loureiroi
Batanes Islands, Philippines. See external link below. Photo by metscaper
Scientific Classification
Genus: Phoenix (FEH-niks) Species: loureiroi (loo-rare-OH-ee) var. loureiroi
Synonyms
None set.
Native Continent
Asia
Morphology
Habit: Solitary Leaf type: Pinnate
Culture
Survivability index
Common names
Thailand; Peng, Philippines; Voyavoi

Habitat and Distribution

Cambodia, China Southeast, Hainan, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Batanes Islands, Philippines. See external link below. Photo by metscaper

In Thailand P. loureiri var. loureiri is found extensively on grassy or rocky slopes or in open areas under dry dipterocarp forest up to 500 m altitude, often but by no means exclusively on limestone soil. At higher altitude it is found on sandy soil in pine forest undergrowth up to 1700 m. The species is increasingly common, almost weedy, in the undergrowth of pine plantations. Phoenix loureiri var. loureiri is rare in Peninsular Thailand. Populations are known only from Trang province near the Malaysian border, growing in grasslands with intense human access, often on old termite mounds along the borders of neglected rice-paddy. (S.C. Barrow. 1998)/Palmweb.

Comments and Curiosities

This palm was first recorded in Indochina as P. pusilla by Loureiro (1790), who described a short palm from Hue in Vietnam. Unfortunately, the name P. pusilla had previously been used by Gaertner (1788) to describe a small palm of Sri Lanka and therefore P. pusilla Lour. is illegitimate. Kunth (1841) later described a palm from Vietnam as P. loureiri Kunth. The similarity between P. loureiri of Indochina and P. humilis of India was acknowledged by Beccari (1890), who included the former as one of five varieties of the latter in his monograph of the genus. This treatment was adopted by Beccari & Hooker (1892 - 93) and Blatter (1926). The name P. humilis (Royle 1840) was taken as the specific epithet, rather than P. loureiri, due to its earlier appearence in the literature, although it was not formerly described until 1890. The International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (Greuter et al. 1994) states that it is the date of description of a name that determines validity, and therefore P. loureiri (1841) must take precedence over P. humilis Royle ex Becc. (1890). This decision was reached by Moore (1963a) who accepted P. loureiri as a wide-ranging species including all varieties of P. humilis as defined by Beccari (1890, 1908). The type variety includes those Phoenix palms of Indochina and the Far East formerly referred to by Beccari (1890, 1908) as P. humilis var. loureiri and var. hanceana. (S.C. Barrow. 1998)/Palmweb.

Distinguished from R loureiri var. pedunculata, by the presence of a continuous strip of sclerotic, tannin-filled cells along leaflet margins, and discontinuous patches of such cells in the abaxial midrib region. (S.C. Barrow. 1998)/Palmweb.