Ka ching (Licuala merguensis)
Description
Solitary palm tree. Stem usually less than 1 m tall, 5–8 cm in diam., often covered by persistent leaf bases to the base. Leaf sheath 40–50 cm long, ligule up to 15 cm long in young leaves; petiole up to 2.2 m long, basally with 2–5 mm long, slender, often unevenly sized and irregularly set spines; lamina divided in 9–17 segments; mid segment entire with 7–17 adaxial ribs, or breaking up irregularly in up to three additional segments, petiolulate or rarely sessile, 35–65 cm long; the remaining segments with 2–4 adaxial ribs the basal ones 30–50 cm long; indentations leading to adaxial and abaxial folds almost even, 0.2–0.5 cm. Inflorescence rarely more than 50 cm long, sinuous and messy looking, often partly covered by litter trapped at the leaf bases, with 4–6 (–7) partial inflorescences; peduncle 10–15 cm long; prophyll 9–12 cm long; peduncular bracts lacking; basal rachis bract 8–15 (–20) cm long, inflated distally, disintegrating irregularly at the apex; partial inflorescences with 3–6 rachillae, curved in various directions, with light brown to ferruginous woolly hair covering, proximal rachillae (5–) 10–15 cm long. Flowers up to about 150 on longest rachillae, grouped in 2–3 flowered cincinni basally to solitary distally, sessile; bract subtending cincinni or individual flowers up to 5 mm; calyx 2.5–4 mm long, urn-shaped, glabrous basally, covered by light brown woolly hair above the middle, with three rounded about 0.5 mm long lobes; corolla 3–4 mm long, covered by seriate hairs arranged in transversal stripes, erect at anthesis, greenish brown on the outside, bright yellow on the inside; androecium about 1.5 mm long, fused to corolla for 0.5 mm; anthers 0.6–0.8 mm long: ovary 1.5 mm long, obovoid, locules in lower half, style about 0.5 mm, stigma overtopping anthers. Fruit rounded, 0.8–1 cm in diam.
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: Licuala
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