Desmoncus

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Desmoncus
1863 Illustration from
Naturalist on the River Amazons
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Arecales
Family: Arecaceae
Subfamily:
Arecoideae
Tribe: Cocoseae
Genus: Desmoncus
Mart.
Synonyms[1]
  • Atitara Barrère ex Kuntze 1891, illegitimate homonym, not Marcgr. ex Juss. 1816
  • Desmonchus Desf., spelling variation

Desmoncus is a

Neotropics. The genus extends from Mexico in the north to Brazil and Bolivia in the south, with two species present in the southeastern Caribbean (Trinidad and the Windward Islands).[1][2][3]

Description

Desmoncus is best known as a genus of climbing palms. Twenty-three of the 24 species recognised by Andrew Henderson in his revision of the genus are climbers; only one, D. stans is free-standing.[3]: 7–16  Almost all Neotropical climbing palms belong to Desmoncus—the one exception being Chamaedorea elatior.[3]: 3 

Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius's drawing of Desmoncus polyacanthos shows the features of the leaf (sheath, petiole, rachis, leaflets, and cirrus) and the inflorescence with its associated bract.
Most Desmoncus species climb using grappling hook-like structures called acanthophylls.

Desmoncus leaves are

leaf sheath, petioles, rachis, and individual leaflets. The ends of the leaves are modified into a climbing structure called a cirrus. Instead of leaflets, the cirrus usually has grappling hook-like structures called acanthophylls; in some species the cirrus is less well developed and is almost absent in D. stans, the non-climbing species.[3]
: 8–10 

All parts of the leaves, including the leaflets themselves, are covered with spines. Most species have straight spines that are over 1 centimetre (0.4 in) long, but a few species have curved spines that are less than 1 cm long.[3]: 8–10 

Taxonomy

Simplified diagram of the relationship between members of the subtribe Bactridinae, based on
phylogeny.[4]
Relationship between members of the subtribe Bactridinae, based on plastid DNA phylogeny.[5] *Aiphanes aculeata is a botanical synonym of A. horrida.

John Dransfield and colleagues put Desmoncus in the

Arecoideae, the tribe Cocoseae and the subtribe Bactridinae, together with Aiphanes, Acrocomia, Astrocaryum and Bactris.[6]

The genus was described by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius in 1824. The first species described was D. polyacanthos.[3]: 16  Martius later described six additional species that he placed in the genus. In this 1881 Flora Brasiliensis, Carl Georg Oscar Drude recognised 17 species. João Barbosa Rodrigues recognised 28 species in his 1903 work Setum Palmarum Brasiliensis.[3]: 3–4 

species concept used by Bailey, Barbosa Rodrigues, and Burret as being too narrow and ended up recognising only seven species[3]: 3–4  In his 2011 revision of the genus, Andrew Henderson recognised 24 species.[3]

Distribution

Desmoncus ranges from Mexico in the north to Bolivia and Brazil in the south. Most species occur at lower elevations, but some species range as high as 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) above sea level. The species are mostly found in lowland tropical rainforest. Twelve species occur in Colombia, the most species-rich country, while 10 are found in Brazil.[3]: 7 

Species

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Desmoncus.
Wikispecies has information related to Desmoncus.
  1. ^ a b 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.
  3. ^
    ISSN 1179-3163
    .
  4. doi:10.1002/tax.602016
    .
  5. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2006.00521.x
    .
  6. JSTOR 25070242
    .
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