Caryota

Fishtail Palms
Caryota mitis leaves
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Monocots
(unranked): Commelinids
Order: Arecales
Family: Arecaceae
Subfamily: Coryphoideae
Tribe: Caryoteae
Genus: Caryota
L.
Synonyms[1]
  • Schunda-Pana Adans.
  • Thuessinkia Korth. ex Miq

Caryota is a genus of palm trees. They are often known as fishtail palms because of the shape of their leaves. There are about 13 species native to Asia (China, India, Indonesia, etc.), northern Australia, and the South Pacific.[1] One of the more widely known species is Caryota urens, the flowers of which are used to make one type of jaggery (an unrefined sugar), and also to make palm wine. Caryota mitis is an invasive introduced species in the US state of Florida. They are also one of the few Arecaceae with bipinnate foliage. Many grow in mountainous areas and are adapted to warm mediterranean climates as well as subtropical and tropical climates.[2]

Species:

  1. Caryota albertii F.Muell. ex H.Wendl. - Queensland
  2. Caryota angustifolia Zumaidar & Jeanson - Sulawesi
  3. Caryota cumingii Lodd. ex Mart. - Philippines fishtail palm - Philippines
  4. Caryota kiriwongensis Hodel - Thailand
  5. Caryota maxima Blume - Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan, Bhutan, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Java, Sumatra, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam
  6. Caryota mitis Lour. - Burmese fishtail palm - Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Borneo, Cambodia, India, Java, Sulawesi, Sumatra, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam
  7. Caryota monostachya Becc. - Vietnam, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan
  8. Caryota no Becc. - Borneo
  9. Caryota obtusa Griff. - Thailand mountain palm - Bhutan, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand
  10. Caryota ophiopellis Dowe - Vanuatu
  11. Caryota rumphiana Mart. - Albert palm - Philippines, Sulawesi, Maluku, New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Bismarck Archipelago
  12. Caryota sympetala Gagnep. - Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia
  13. Caryota urens L. - southern India, Sri Lanka; naturalized in Assam, Bangladesh, Bonin Islands, southern China,Nepal, Myanmar, Andaman Islands, Malaysia, Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico - jaggery palm, solitary fishtail palm, wine palm, toddy palm
  14. Caryota zebrina Hambali & al. - New Guinea

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 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.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Caryota.

Gallery of Images