A flora of Manila - Rainforestation

126
A FLORA OF MANILA
perianth acrescent. Ovary ovoid, 3- to 1-celled. Fruit ovoid to obovoid,
1- to 3-seeded, the pericarp oily, the endocarp hard. (Greek name of the
olive.)
Species 6 or 7 in tropical America and Africa, 1 introduced in the Phil-
ippines.
*1. E. GUiNEENSis Jacq. Oil Palm.
An erect palm 4 to 10 m high, the leaves numerous, 3 to 4.5 m long, the
petioles broad, armed on the sides with spinescent reduced leaves. Leaflets
numerous, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, nearly 1 m long, 2 to 4 cm wide.
Male inflorescence dense, of numerous, cylindric, 7 to 12 cm long spikes
which are about 1 cm in diameter, their rachises excurrent as a stout awn.
Female inflorescence dense, branched, 20 to 30 cm long, the flowers densely
disposed, the fruits borne in large dense masses.
Occasionally cultivated, fl. all the year. A native of tropical Africa, now
cultivated in most tropical countries, and in some regions of great economic
importance on account of the oil yielded by its seeds.
8. ARENGA Labillardiere
Stout palms with very long, erect or ascending, pinnate leaves, the trunk
densely clothed with the stout, black, fibrous remains of the sheaths; leaflets
very numerous, long, linear, usually more or less irregularly toothed at the
apex, sometimes lobed, base often 1- or 2-auricled. Spadices in the leaf-
axils, the upper one flowering first, and then the lower ones successively,
large, much-branched, long, pendulous. Male and female flowers usually
solitary and in separate spadices, sometimes in threes, a female between
two males. Male flowers: Sepals orbicular, imbricate. Petals oblong,
valvate. Stamens many. Female flowers subglobose, the sepals enlarging,
the petals triangular, valvate; staminodes many or none. Fruit subglobose
to broadly obovoid, 2- or 3-seeded. (From the Malayan name.)
Species about 10, tropical Asia, Malaya, and Australia, about 5 in the
Philippines.
1. A. SACCHARIFERA (Wurmb.) Labill. Caong, Iroc (Tag.) ; Cabo negro
(Sp.-Fil.) ;
Sugar Palm.
Trunk stout, marked with rather distant annular scars, up to 12 m high.
Leaves 6 to 8.5 m long, ascending, the sheathing basal parts with stout,
black fibers; leaflets up to 100 or more on each side, linear, 1 to 1.5 m long,
the tip lobed and variously toothed, the base 2-auricled, the lower surface
white or pale. Inflorescence axillary, the peduncle stout, decurved, the
pendulous branches very numerous, up to 1.5 m in length. Male flowers in
pairs, about 12 mm long. Fruit globose on depressed-globose, about 5 cm
in diameter, produced in great abundance. (Fl. Filip. pi. il9.)
Rare in Manila in cultivation, fl. all the year; throughout the Philippines,
but undoubtedly introduced. India to Malaya.
9. OREODOXA WiUdenow
Large unarmed palms, the trunks solitary, cylindric or thickened in the
middle. Leaves terminal, pinnate, the segments narrowly linear-lanceolate,
unequally 2-fid at the apex ; sheaths elongated, cylindric, imbricate, enclosing
the top of the trunk. Inflorescence below the sheaths, the spadix large, the
branches elongated, slender, pendulous, the spathes 2, the lower one nearly
cylindric, as long as the spadix. Flowers small, monoecious, the lower ones