Aphandra

Aphandra
 Barfod


Original
reference:
Opera Bot. 105: 44 (1991)

Type:
Aphandra natalia (Balslev & A.J.Hend.) Barfod

Morphology:
Medium sized, dioecious palms. Stem solitary, becoming clean and smooth with age. Leaves pinnate, regularly divided, with a short petiole; leaf sheaths with numerous brown fibres at the margins; leaf axis with numerous black, adpressed scales, especially below; pinnae regularly inserted in one plane, with inconspicuous submarginal veins. Inflorescences with several peduncular bacts. Male inflorescence cylindrical, yellow, with flowers densely positioned in small heads borne on short branches, each flower elevated on a pseudopetiole formed as an outgrowth of the inflorescence branch. Female inflorescence compact, with 30-50 flowers, each of these 20-25 cm long, with 4-6 sepals, 7-10 petals, and an ovary formed of 6-8 carpels with one long style. Infructescence globular; fruits covered with corky protuberances. Seedling leaves pinnately divided.




Distribution
and diversity: A genus of only one species, A. natalia, distributed in the W part of the Amazon basin in Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil.

Notes:
Aphandra belongs to the group of vegetable ivory palms, together with Ammandra and Phytelephas. The technical character defining Aphandra against the two other is its pseudopedicellate male flowers (borne on an elevation made from the inflorescence axis rather than on an axillary pedicel)


 

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