Elaeis

Jacquin

Selectarum Stirpium Americanarum Historia... 280. 1763.

Common names: Oil palm
Etymology: Greek elaia, olive, in reference to the oily fruits
Synonyms: Alfonsia Kunth Corozo Jacquin ex Giseke
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 22. Treatment on page 121.
 TaxonIllustrator 
FNA22 P23 Cocos Syagrus Elaeis Acrocomia pg 120.jpegElaeis guineensis
Acrocomia totai
Cocos nucifera
Syagrus romanzoffiana

Stems solitary, erect, robust, covered with persistent leaf-bases or bare, unarmed. Leaves: crownshaft absent; petiole margins armed with lignified, indurate bases of midveins persisting as spines after blade erodes; blade pinnate, unarmed; plication reduplicate; segments regularly arranged in multiple planes [in 1 plane], apices acute to 2-cleft. Inflorescences within crown of leaves, densely paniculate, with 1 order of branching, either staminate or pistillate, partially obscured by leaf-bases; peduncle short; prophyll short; peduncular bract woody, splitting abaxially; rachillae thick, apices stiff, sharp. Flowers unisexual, sessile, borne singly along rachillae. Staminate flowers in pits in rachillae; sepals 3, free; petals 3, free, valvate, leathery; stamens 6, filaments briefly connate; anthers rectangular; pistillode with 3 minute lobes. Pistillate flowers: sepals 3, imbricate, free; petals 3, imbricate, free; staminodial ring bearing 6 short points; pistil s1; ovules 3; styles indistinct; stigmas 3. Fruits drupes, ovoid; exocarp orange-yellow and black, thin; mesocarp fleshy, oily; endocarp thick, bony, with 3 apical germination pores. Seeds spheroid; endosperm homogeneous; embryo subapical; eophyll undivided, lanceolate.

Distribution

Tropics, Central America, South America, Africa

Discussion

Elaeis guineensis, the African oil palm, is widespread in wet tropical Africa. It is now cultivated throughout the tropics, where it is the most important perennial oil crop, the source of both palm oil and palm kernel oil.

Species 2 (1 in the flora).

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

... more about "Elaeis"
dorsifixed +  and basifixed +
rectangular +
sharp +, acute +  and 2-cleft +
Scott Zona +
Jacquin +
persisting +
indurate +  and lignified +
Oil palm +
Tropics +, Central America +, South America +  and Africa +
lanceolate +
Greek elaia, olive, in reference to the oily fruits +
orange-yellow and black +
pistillate +, staminate +  and sessile +
adnate +, connate +  and distinct +
berrylike +  and drupaceous +
apical +  and basal +
branched +  and spicate +
pistillate +, staminate +  and branching +
2-pinnate +  and pinnate +
minute +
bearing prickles or marginal teeth +  and unarmed +
ridged +, channeled +  and terete +
list +  and count +
1 +  and 3 +
v--shaped +  and tent--shaped +
germination +
Selectarum Stirpium Americanarum Historia... +
adventitious +
adhering to endocarp +  and free +
spheroid +
bearing prickles +  and unarmed +
cuneate +, linear +  and lanceolate +
covered with fibrous or prickly remains +  and smooth +
subterranean +
enlarged;massive;slender +
connate +  and distinct +
Alfonsia +  and Corozo +
Arecaceae (tribe Cocoeae) subtribe Elaeidinae +
unbranched +  and branched +
plant +, shrub +  and tree +
unisexual +  and bisexual +