High plateau coconut palm (Beccariophoenix alfredii)
Description
Beccariophoenix alfredii grows up to 50 ft (15 m) in height with a trunk up to 1 ft (30 cm) in diameter. The trunk is unarmed and bare, with closely ringed leaf scars. The crown holds 30–36 pinnate leaves, which reach lengths of 4.5 m (15 ft). Each leaf holds approximately 120 pairs of leaflets. The leaflets are very slender and crowded at the base, and are either rigid or somewhat pendulous. Towards the base of the leaf, leaflets are about 47 cm (19 in) long and 1 cm wide. Mid leaf, leaflets are at their largest, being about 112 cm (44 in) long and 4 cm (2 in) wide. At the tip of the leaf, leaflets become smaller again, being 65 cm (26 in) long and 1.8 cm (1 in) wide. Dead leaves are marcescent in juvenile palms, but abscise neatly in adults.The inflorescence is infrafoliar and surrounded by a 90 cm (35 in) long, leathery spathe, which curls up on itself after abscission (due to drying out). The inflorescence stalk is 8–13 cm (3.1–5.1 in) long and elliptic in cross-section. The rachis is very short, 8–9 cm (3.1–3.5 in) long and bearing about 30–50 crowded, spirally arranged rachillae. The fruit is oblate, 1.6 cm × 2.4 cm (0.6 in × 0.9 in) and dark purplish-black at maturity.
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum:
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Class: Liliopsida
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Order: Arecales
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Family: Arecaceae
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Genus: Beccariophoenix
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