Orania lauterbachiana

From Palmpedia - Palm Grower's Guide
Revision as of 05:12, 12 February 2016 by Edric_blocked_old (Talk | contribs)

(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to: navigation, search
Orania (oh-rahn-EE-ah)
lauterbachiana
(law-ter-bahk-ee-AHN-ah)
602.jpg
Morere, near Kikori, Papua New Guinea. Photo by Dr. William J. Baker, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Palmweb.
Scientific Classification
Genus: Orania (oh-rahn-EE-ah)
Species:
lauterbachiana
(law-ter-bahk-ee-AHN-ah)
Synonyms
None set.
Native Continent
Oceania
Oceania.gif
Morphology
Habit: Solitary
Leaf type: Pinnate
Culture
Survivability index
Common names
Bananak (Amele-Madang), kolu (Mokian), kunakwan (Jal.), omoo (Yamur).

Habitat and Distribution

New Guinea. Orania lauterbachiana is the most widespread species in New Guinea.
Victory Junction, Gulf, Papua New Guinea. Photo by Dr. William J. Baker, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Palmweb.
It is found throughout the mainland and on a nearby island. In Papua this species is known from Sorong, Etna Bay-Fakfak and surrounding the Taritatu (formerly Idenburg) river. In Papua New Guinea it is known throughout the country from Western Province to the most eastern part (Milne Bay Province) including Normanby Island. So far, it has never been collected from other nearby islands. In ridge forest from lowlands up to highland tropical forest from 10 - 820 m altitude. (A.P. Keim and J. Dransfield. 2012)/Palmweb.

Description

Large palm. Trunk up to 10 - 20 m tall, about 18 cm in diam. near the crown, about 32 cm in diam. near the base. Leaves 10 in the crown, spirally arranged, about 3.5 - 5.1 m long; Leaf-sheath about 30 cm long, margins disintegrating into fibres, about 13 - 15 cm long, adaxial surface glabrous, abaxial surface with red-brown tomentum; petiole about 1.2 - 2.20 m long, covered with red-brown tomentum in the proximal part, about 2.3 - 2.4 cm in diam.; rachis densely covered with red-brown tomentum, about 2 cm in diam. in the middle part; leaflets elongate-lanceolate, regularly arranged leaflets held in one plane, 18 - 21 on each side of rachis, sometimes the proximal 2 leaflets crowded in a group (L. J. Brass 5489), otherwise about 5.5 - 15 cm distant, about 70 - 132 cm long, 5.5 - 11.5 cm wide, adaxial surface glabrous or with thin red-brown tomentum, mainly near the base, with white appearance, midrib slender, other ribs more slender, abaxial surface with dense white indumentum, red-brown tomentum on margin, midrib thick, other ribs more slender. Inflorescence spreading, branching into 2 orders, about 95 - 192 cm long, robust; prophyll persistent, hard, splitting in the middle, about 45 - 161 cm long, 7 cm wide, disintegrating into fibres when old; peduncle about 53 - 65 cm long, with thin or dense red-brown tomentum; peduncular bract division unknown; rachis about 57 - 127 cm long; first order branches about 50 - 90 cm long; rachillae thick, rarely slender, distally zigzagging, with thin red-brown tomentum, about 35 - 60 cm long, bearing 96 - 104 flower clusters, bearing triads arranged in the proximal 1 - 2 rarely in the proximal 2 - 5 & paired staminate flowers in the distal 3 - 5 part, the basal about 2 - 3.5 cm devoid of flowers, triads about 1.5 - 2 cm distant, rarely 0.5 - 1 cm distant, rachilla glabrous or with thin red-brown tomentum, some deeply textured. Staminate flowers pale creamy white; with calyx of 3 united sepals, about 1 - 2 mm long; corolla with 3 free petals, about 7 - 11 mm long, 2 - 2.5 mm wide; stamens 6, filaments free, dark brown, about 1 - 1.75 mm long, anthers elongate-lanceolate, pale creamy yellow, free, about 5 - 7 mm long, pollen yellow, numerous, pistillodes absent. Pistillate flowers with calyx of 3 minute united sepals, about 3 - 4 mm long, 3 - 3.5 mm wide; corolla with 3 petals, about 6 - 8 mm long, 3 - 6 mm wide; staminodes 6, uniform, about 1 mm long; gynoecium about 4 mm long, 1 - 1.5 mm wide; stigma with 3 elongate lobes, about 1 - 2 mm long, brighter coloured. Fruits globose, bilobed or trilobed, reddish orange when mature (Lauterbach 970), about 3.3 - 5 cm in diam., pale brownish green when young, orange or brownish orange when mature. Embryo placed below middle line of seed. Eophyll bifid. (A.P. Keim and J. Dransfield. 2012)/Palmweb. Editing by edric.

read more

The holotype of Orania lauterbachiana (Lauterbach 970) was once identified as O. macropetala and cited in the protologue of that species by Lauterbach & Schumann (1901) with further notes on its slight differences with the syntypes of O. macropetala, Lauterbach 2001 and 2835. In the protologue of O. lauterbachiana Beccari (1915) had already described in detail the differences between O. lauterbachiana and O. macropetala regarding the floral dimensions, but there was no mention of the number of stamens and staminodes. Neither did Lauterbach & Schumann mention this in the protologue of O. macropetala. It was Essig (1980) who first described the number of stamens as one character that distinguishes O. lauterbachiana from O. macropetala. Amazingly, although Beccari did not mention the number of stamens, his observation was correct, that Lauterbach 970 represented a different taxon. Unfortunately the holotype of O. lauterbachiana was probably destroyed during World War II. Only one isotype survived, the one kept in FI - just three photographs of rachillae and a bunch of dried staminate and pistillate flowers. Essig (1980) cited the presence of photographs of fragments of the type - presumed to be of B- at BH, but these have not been found. Essig also mentioned that O. lauterbachiana has a fruit diam. varying from 3.2 - 5.5 cm; however, the protologue of O. lauterbachiana does not say anything about the fruit diam. (see Beccari 1915). Apparently the information regarding the fruit diam. was measured from other specimens, but not the type. Burret (1936) described O. brassii as a distinct species; however, Burret (1936) never compared his O. brassii with O. lauterbachiana in his protologue although there was a great possibility that he had seen the type of O. lauterbachiana - or even read the protologue itself - sent by Beccari to Berlin several years before. Instead Burret only compared O. brassii with the glabrous O. disticha and stated the presence of redbrown tomentum in the peduncle and rachillae as the distinctive characters. The species is now subsumed, not based on the comparison with O. disticha, but with a more appropriate one, O. lauterbachiana. Essig also mentioned without giving an exact reference that Burret himself had annotated the specimen at NY, so based on this the specimen was then selected as the lectotype. This statement is doubtful for Burret never wrote about this in the protologue. (A.P. Keim and J. Dransfield. 2012)/Palmweb.

Culture

Tropical in its requirements. Cold Hardiness Zone: 10b+

Comments and Curiosities

Etymology: Genus name; Honors the early 19th century Crown Prince of the Netherlands, F.G.L. Willem van Nassau, Prince of Orange. Species name; After C. A. G. Lauterbach, German naturalist and plant collector.

Conservation: Least concern (LC). Widespread throughout the island of New Guinea and often occurring in large stands. (A.P. Keim and J. Dransfield. 2012)/Palmweb.

Uses: The trunk is used as floorboards for houses.



  • IMAGE GALLERY

  • Orania lauterbachiana, HI.

  • Victory Junction, Gulf, Papua New Guinea. Photo by Dr. William J. Baker, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Palmweb.

  • Morere, near Kikori, Papua New Guinea. Photo by Dr. William J. Baker, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Palmweb.

  • Gulf Province of Papua New Guinea. Photo by Dr. William J. Baker, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Palmweb.

  • Dr. Sahsa Barrow for scale. Morere, near Kikori, Papua New Guinea. Photo by Dr. William J. Baker, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Palmweb.

  • Dr. Sahsa Barrow for scale. Papua New Guinea. Photo by Dr. William J. Baker, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/Palmweb.

  • Photo by Clayton York, Utopia Palms & Cycads.

  • At the Townsville Palmetum, Australia. Photo by Daryl O'Connor.

  • Papua New Guinea. Photo by Dr. Frederick B. Essig.

  • Townsville Palmetum in Queensland, Australia. Photo by Paul Craft.

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).

A.P. Keim and J. Dransfield. 2012. A monograph of the genus Orania (Arecaceae: Oranieae).


Many Special Thanks to Ed Vaile for his long hours of tireless editing and numerous contributions.

Banner1B
Back to Palm Encyclopedia


Retrieved from "https://palmpedia.net/wiki/index.php5?title=Orania_lauterbachiana&oldid=138575"