Livistona rigida (Livistona rigida)
Description
Functionally dioecious palm. Trunk to 28 m tall, 30-40 cm in diam. breast high, leaf scars raised, internodes narrow, grey, petiole stubs persistent in the basal 1 m or so, otherwise deciduous. Leaves 30-50 in a globose crown; petiole 150-250 cm long, 20-35 mm wide, adaxially concave, margins with single curved reddish-black spines to 6 mm long in the proximal portion, otherwise smooth; leaf-base fibres moderately prominent, coarse, persistent; lamina costapalmate, regularly segmented, circular in outline, 125-170 cm long, 100-150 cm in diam., rigidly coriaceous, adaxially grey to glaucous, midgreen, semi-glossy, abaxially lighter green, glaucous; lamina divided for 50-55% of its length, with 50-78 segments, depth of apical cleft 30-63% of the segment length, apical lobes acuminate, rigid or semi-pendulous; parallel veins 5-7 each side of midrib; transverse veins thinner than parallel veins. Inflorescences unbranched at the base, not sexually dimorphic, 100-250 cm long, not extending beyond the limit of the crown, branched to 4 orders; artial inflorescences 9-14; prophyll 25-38 cm long, 8-9 cm wide; peduncular bract 1, loosely tubular with moderate to dense white-grey scales; rachis bracts loosely tubular with sparse white scales; rachillae 3-8 cm long, rigid, glabrous. Flowers in clusters of 3-8, globose, about 1.8 mm long, cream to yellow; sepals broadly ovate, about 2 mm long, thin, acute; petals triangular 1.0-1.4 mm long, obtuse; stamens about 1.2 mm long. Fruit globose, 12-14 mm in diam., semi-glossy black; epicarp with scattered lenticellular pores; suture line extends for about ½ the length of the fruit, marked with lip-like tructures; mesocarp fibrous; endocarp thin; pedicel about 2 mm long. Seed globose, 9-11 mm wide. Eophyll 5-ribbed. (Dowe, J.L.)/Palmweb.
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: Livistona
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