Linospadix palmerianus (F.M.Bailey) Burret

Arecaceae

Burret, (M.)K.E. (1934) Notizblatt des Botanischen Gartens und Museums zu Berlin-Dahlem 12 : 331.

Palm, Walking Stick; Walking Stick Palm

Clustering small palm, 1-2.5 m tall. Usually flowers and fruits as a shrub 1-2.5 m tall.

Leaflets or segments 2-24 per compound leaf. Petiole and rhachis clothed in brown scales. Lateral leaflets about 10-20 cm long. Terminal leaflets or segments wider at the base than any of the lateral leaflets. Leaflets discrete. Small densely arranged orbicular 'cells' visible with a lens.

Inflorescence about 25-60 cm long. Male and female flowers may appear to be in separate spikes but both are produced in each spike and the males shed following anthesis. Stamens 6-9 per male flower.

Fruit cylindrical, about 10-18 x 5-10 mm. Seed about 12 x 5 mm with prominent longitudinal ribs.

Features not available.

Endemic to NEQ, known only from Mt Bartle Frere, the Bellenden Ker Range and the surrounding foothills. Altitudinal range from 300-1600 m. Grows as an understory plant in upland and mountain rain forests.

Distinguished from other species by the combination of the clustering habit, elongate-cylindrical fruit, regularly segmented pinnate leaf and long petiole.

Bacularia palmeriana F.M.Bailey, Botany of the Bellenden-Ker Expedition (in Meston: Report of the Government Scientific Expedition to Bellenden-Ker Range) : 67(1889), Type: Queensland, Mt Bellenden Ker, 1889, Bailey s.n.; lecto: BRI (AQ77548 Bacularia aequisegmentosa Domin, Bibliotheca Botanica 89(4): 500(1928), Type: Queensland, Bellenden Ker, Dec. 1909, Domin; holo: PR?. Linospadix aequisegmentosa (Domin) Burret, Notizblatt des Botanischen Gartens und Museums zu Berlin-Dahlem 12 : 331(1934).