Latania

Latania, commonly known as latan palm or latania palm, is a genus of flowering plant in the palm tree family, native to the Mascarene Islands in the western Indian Ocean.[1][2]

This article is about the palm. For the ski resort, see La Tania. For similar topics, see Latonia (disambiguation).

Latania
Red latan palm
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Arecales
Family: Arecaceae
Tribe: Borasseae
Genus: Latania
Comm. ex Juss.
Type species
Latania lontaroides
Synonyms[1]
  • Cleophora Gaertn.

Species

The genus contains three species, one from each of the three major islands (including islets) in the chain. All species have been ranked as Endangered by the IUCN.[3]

ImageLeavesCommon NameScientific nameNative Distribution
blue latan palm, latanier de l'Ile RondeLatania loddigesii Mart.Mauritius
red latan palm, latanier de la RéunionLatania lontaroides (Gaertn.) H.E.MooreRéunion
yellow latan palm, latanier de RodriguesLatania verschaffeltii Lem.Rodrigues Island


Latan palms are large, single-stemmed fan palms with separate male and female plants (dioecy); when the leaves fall, they leave scars on the trunks. Male flowers are small, in clusters, and emerge from within leathery bracts on the catkin-like inflorescences. Female flowers are larger, solitary and not concealed within bracts. The fruits contain 1-3 pyrenes, which are seeds enclosed within woody endocarps.[4] The endocarps have sculpted surfaces and the three species are readily distinguished from their pyrenes.[5]

Pyrenes (seeds within endocarps) of the three species of Latania: left, L. verschaffeltii; middle, L. lontaroides; right, L. loddigesii


References
  1. Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
  2. Govaerts, R. & Dransfield, J. (2005). World Checklist of Palms: 1-223. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  3. "Latania conservation status". www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
  4. Dransfield, John; Uhl, Natalie W.; Asmussen, Conny B.; Baker, William J.; Harley, Madeline M.; Lewis, Carl E. (2008). Genera Palmarum - Evolution and Classification of Palms. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. ISBN 978-1842461822.
  5. Bayton, Ross P. Borassus L. and the borassoid palms - systematics and evolution (PhD Thesis). University of Reading.


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