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  1. Family: Arecaceae Bercht. & J.Presl
    1. Genus: Cyrtostachys Blume

      1. Cyrtostachys renda Blume

        This species is accepted, and its native range is Peninsula Thailand to W. Malesia.

    [PW]
    Conservation
    Vulnerable (VU). See Dransfield & Johnson (1991), Kiew (1991), and Mogea (1991) for conservation status assessment.
    Distribution
    This is the only species found to the west of Wallace’s Line, occurring in the southern part of Thailand, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo.
    Biology
    Cyrtostachys renda grows in lowland peat swamp forest, especially in coastal areas, but more rarely occurs in peat swamps in uplands from 0 – 500 m above sea level.
    Vernacular
    Thailand: kap daeng, mark-dang (Thai). Malay Peninsula: pinang rajah (Malay). Sumatra: pinang renda or rende’ (Indrapura); pinang rimbou (Sibolga); pinang lempiauw or pinang lepiaw (Bangka island). Borneo: malawaring, raring (Brunei). Trade names: pinang merah, palem merah, (Malay/Indonesia); sealing wax palm, lipstick palm (English); hsing hsing yeh tzu (Chinese); rode palm (Dutch).
    General Description
    Slender, clustering tree palm with up to c. 3 or more adult stems up to 15 (– 20) m high. Stem c. 6 – 10 cm diam., green with greyish stripes or yellow with somewhat greenish and purplish stripes, internodes 15 – 24 cm long, crown appearing shuttle-cock shaped. Leaves 7 – 10 in crown, erect, stiff, to 150 cm long; sheath tubular, c. 100 cm long, forming distinct crownshaft, scarlet to bright red, with scattered black thick scales; petiole elongate, 5 – 50 cm long, 1.5 – 2.5 cm wide and 1 – 2 cm thick at the base, channelled adaxially, rounded abaxially, red, indumentum as sheath; leaflets regularly arranged, leathery, 26 – 40 leaflets on each side, 56 – 107 × 3 – 6 cm at middle portion, apical leaflets 10 – 20 × 1 – 2 cm, briefly pointed with long tip and sometimes notched at apices, green, discolorous when dried, glaucous adaxially, waxy white abaxially, mid-vein with discontinuous membranous brown scales. Inflorescence strongly divaricate, to 90 cm long, branched to 2 (possibly 3) orders, creamy, green to dark purplish-red; peduncle 5 – 8 cm long; rachilla 27 – 73.5 cm long and 4 – 6 mm diam., calyx persistent on rachillae when fruits fallen off; pits 2 – 5 mm diam., 5 – 7 pits per 1 cm rachilla length. Staminate flowers 2 – 2.5 × 2 – 3 mm, asymmetrical; sepals 1.8 – 2 × 2 mm, imbricate, rounded, strongly keeled; petals 1 – 2 × 1 – 1.8 mm, triangular, brown at apex and base; stamens 12 – 15; filaments 0.7 – 1 × 0.2 – 0.3mm; anthers 1 – 1.5 × 0.5 – 0.8mm; pollen size, long axis 36 – 43 μm, short axis 27 – 33 μm, proximal wall thickness 1.5 – 2 μm, distal wall thickness not observed, tectum surface microfossulate-rugulate, trichotomosulcate grains present; pistillode 0.7 – 1 × 0.2 – 0.5 mm, trifid. Pistillate flowers 4 – 5 × 3 – 4 mm; sepals 3 – 4 × 2 – 3 mm, imbricate, strongly keeled, dark brown to black; petals 3 – 3.5 × 2 – 2.5 mm; gynoecium 3.5 × 1.5 mm (including three recurved stigma 0.5 – 1 mm); staminodes circular, 0.5 – 1 mm height. Fruits 7 – 10 × 4 – 7 mm, ellipsoid to ovoid, light green becoming black when ripe. Seeds 4 – 5 × 3 – 5 × 3 – 5, ellipsoid to ovoid.
    [PW]
    Use
    This palm has limited traditional uses; stems are used for flooring and leaves for thatch. It is, however, a highly desirable and widely cultivated ornamental for tropical regions.

    Images

    Distribution

    Native to:

    Borneo, Malaya, Sumatera, Thailand

    Introduced into:

    Trinidad-Tobago

    Cyrtostachys renda Blume appears in other Kew resources:

    Date Reference Identified As Barcode Type Status
    Jun 27, 2005 unknown [SAN86702], Indonesia K000030067
    Jun 27, 2005 Clemens [21377], Indonesia K000030079
    Jun 27, 2005 Salleh [1214], Malaysia K000030063
    Oct 28, 1988 Kerr, A.F.G. [14332], Thailand K000030064
    Oct 28, 1988 Beccari, O. [3438], Indonesia K000030080
    Oct 28, 1988 Beccari, O. [3438], Indonesia K000207900
    Oct 28, 1988 Cultivated [s.n.] K000030078
    Oct 28, 1988 Keith [2491], Malaysia K000030140
    Jan 29, 1986 Nayomdham, C. [852], Thailand K000030066
    Jan 1, 1908 unknown [s.n.], Indonesia K000030083
    Chase [DNA Bank19246] K000208507
    Bannochie, I., Barbados 45930.000
    Dransfield, J. [JD7279], Brunei K000208811
    Barfod, A. [41772], Thailand K000030065
    Cultivated [1982-5882] K000525849
    P.B. [4038], Malaysia K000030082
    Bernstein, J. [JHB278] K000030062
    s.coll. [s.n.], Indonesia K000030081 isotype

    First published in Bull. Sci. Phys. Nat. Néerl. 1: 66 (1838)

    Accepted by

    • Barfod, A.S. & Dransfield, J. (2013). Flora of Thailand 11(3): 323-498. The Forest Herbarium, National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department, Bangkok.
    • Heatubun, C.D., Baker, W.J., Mogea, J.P., Harley, M.M., Tjitrosoedirdjo, S.S. & Dransfield, J. (2009). A monograph of Cyrtostachys (Arecaceae) Kew Bulletin 64: 67-94.
    • Henderson, A. (2009). Palms of Southern Asia: 1-197. Princeton university press, Princeton and Oxford.
    • Govaerts, R. & Dransfield, J. (2005). World Checklist of Palms: 1-223. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
    • Pooma, R. (ed.) (2005). A preliminary check-list of threatened plants in Thailand: 1-193. National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department, Bangkok.
    • Govaerts, R. (1999). World Checklist of Seed Plants 3(1, 2a & 2b): 1-1532. MIM, Deurne.

    Literature

    Palmweb - Palms of the World Online
    • Ch.D. Heatubun, A monograph of Cyrtostachys (Arecaceae). 2009
    Kew Backbone Distributions
    • Baksh-Comeau, Y., Maharaj, S.S., Adams, C.D., Harris, S.A., Filer, D.L. & Hawthorne, W.D. (2016). An annotated checklist of the vascular plants of Trinidad and Tobago with analysis of vegetation types and botanical 'hotspots' Phytotaxa 250: 1-431.

    Sources

    Art and Illustrations in Digifolia
    Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

    Herbarium Catalogue Specimens
    'The Herbarium Catalogue, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet http://www.kew.org/herbcat [accessed on Day Month Year]'. Please enter the date on which you consulted the system.
    Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

    Kew Backbone Distributions
    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2019. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

    Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone
    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2019. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

    Palmweb - Palms of the World Online
    Palmweb 2011. Palmweb: Palms of the World Online. Published on the internet http://www.palmweb.org. Accessed on 21/04/2013
    Content licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0