Geonoma leptospadix

Geonoma leptospadix
Trail


Original
reference:

J. Bot. 14: 327 (1876)


Morphology:
Understorey palm. Stems solitary or clustered, to 2 m tall and ca. 1 cm in diameter. Leaf blade 20-30 cm long, simple, narrow (E Ecuador) or broad (W Ecuador) in outline. Inflorescence once branched; peduncle 10-15 cm long; branches 2-4, hairy, straight or slightly arching, 1-2 mm in diameter. Flower pits loosely arranged, sometimes slightly elevated. Female flowers with staminodes united into a tube.



Distribution:
NW South America, from Venzuela and Colombia to Bolivia. In Ecuador, the species occurs in premontane moist to wet forest W of the Andes, but is also found occasionally in the E lowlands.

Notes:
Plants from the pacific side of the Andes differ from those from the Amazon in having a solitary stem, slightly wider leaf blades, and thicker, curving inflorescence branches that are straight, not folded, in bud. They may warrant status as a separate taxon


Common
names:

Cuasque

Awa

(D. Rubio #1090).

Palmito

Spanish

(F. Skov #64741).

Synonym
list
(1)

Specimen
list