A revision of Coccothrinax, Hemithrinax, Leucothrinax, Thrinax, and Zombia (Arecaceae)
Author
Henderson, Andrew
text
Phytotaxa
2023
2023-09-19
614
1
1
115
http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.614.1.1
journal article
10.11646/phytotaxa.614.1.1
1179-3163
8389307
1.13.
Coccothrinax fagildei
Borhidi & Muñiz (1985: 227)
.
Type
:—
CUBA
.
Santiago de Cuba
, oeste del
Río Verraco
,
25 April 1984
,
O
.
Muñiz
,
J
.
Fagilde
&
B
.
González
15021
(
holotype
HAC
n.v
.)
Stems
length not recorded,
5.3 cm
diameter, clustered.
Leaves
more or less deciduous or only leaf bases persisting on stem; leaf sheath fibers 0.9(0.8–1.0) mm diameter, stout, woody, loosely woven, ± joined or briefly free at the apices; petioles 8.5(6.9–10.0) mm diameter just below the apex; palmans 6.0 cm long, relatively short, with the adaxial veins prominent and terminating in a slight raised ridge and distinct pulvinus; leaf blades wedge-shaped; segments 20(18– 22) per leaf, the middle ones 29.5(29.0–30.0) cm long and 2.1(1.9–2.3) cm wide; segments not pendulous at the apices, giving the leaf a flat appearance; middle leaf segments tapering from base to apex, often folded, stiff and leathery, with or without scarcely developed shoulders, the apices sharply pointed and briefly splitting; middle leaf segment apices attenuate; leaf segments not waxy or sometimes with a deciduous, thin layer of wax adaxially, densely indumentose abaxially, with irregularly shaped, persistent, interlocking, fimbriate hairs, each one with a rounded, raised, light green to greenish-brown or reddish-brown center, without transverse veinlets.
Inflorescences
curving, arching, or pendulous amongst the leaves, with few partial inflorescences; rachis bracts somewhat flattened, loosely sheathing, usually tomentose with a dense tuft of erect hairs at the apex; partial inflorescences 3; proximalmost rachillae straight,
4.7 cm
long and
0.9 mm
diameter in fruit; rachillae glabrous at or near anthesis; stamens 9; fruit pedicels
3.3 mm
long;
fruits
9.0 mm long and 9.0 mm diameter, color not recorded; fruit surfaces with projecting fibers; seed surfaces deeply lobed, the lobes running from base of seeds almost to apices.
PLATE 11
.
Coccothrinax ekmanii
, Dominican Republic, with wedge-shaped leaf blades. (Image by Eladio Fernández).
Distribution and habitat:—
Cuba
(
Santiago de Cuba
) (
Fig. 12
) in scrubby woodland on marine terraces and dog’s tooth limestone at
100 m
elevation.
Taxonomic notes:—
As a preliminary species,
Coccothrinax fagildei
has a unique combination of qualitative character states and is recognized as a phylogenetic species. It is notable for its clustered stems and wedge-shaped leaves.
Moya (2021)
reported that the
type
of
C. fagildei
is not present at HAC. The only other specimen (
Salzman 505
) known is from the
type
locality. The abaxial surface of the segments of this specimen is unusual
—
it could almost be scored as
C. argentata
-like. Fruits have not been seen (fruit size is scored from the protologue) but are described in the protologue as covered with “puntos prominulos dense dispuestos ruguloso”.