Chamaedorea tuerckheimii (Chamaedorea tuerckheimii)
Description
Trunk type: Solitary. This is one of the smallest palms known, ranging from 0.3 to 1 m tall. The most striking vegetative character of this palm is its entire, prominently plicate (corrugated) leaf. Apparently the species has two forms that differ in vegetative features. Found in montane rainforests and cloud forests, the Guatemalan-Honduran form has bright green leaves that are slightly narrow, strongly plicate, and have a white margin. In Mexico, C. tuerckheimii has mottled green, somewhat broader, ovate leaves that are not as strongly plicate and have green leaf margins. Editing by edric. Habit: solitary, erect or briefly decumbent, 0.3-1 m tall. Stem: 3-7 mm in diam., creeping, buried in leaf litter, green, conspicuously ringed, internodes 0.6-1.2 cm long. Leaves: 7-12 per crown, erect-ascending to spreading, bifid, forming a rosette-like crown; sheath 5 cm long, very open, tubular only in lower 1/2, closely appressed, oblique apically, margin whitish or light green and longitudinally striate-nerved; petiole to 5 cm long or shorter, lightly grooved and green or gray-green above, rounded and green or gray-green below, lower margins of blades lightly decurrent along petiole to sheath; rachis 12-20 cm long, angled and green above, rounded and gray-green or green below with a pale or whitish band extending to sheath; blades 12-22 x 3.5-7.5 cm, cuneate-obovate or slightly elliptic, not bifid but entire or with a very small notch at otherwise rounded or obtuse apex, closely plicate, ± stiff, cuneate basally, velvety bluish green or mottled green above, paler below, margins toothed and whitish or green, 26-30 teeth per side, these 0.75-1.5 x 0.75-1.5 mm, 13-19 primary nerves on each side of rachis, a secondary nerve between each pair of primaries.
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: Chamaedorea
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