Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Arenga microcarpa Becc.


Palm, pandan or cycad
Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Tree
Click/tap on images to enlarge
In closed coastal forest [not vouchered]. © J.L. Dowe
Female flowers [not vouchered]. © J.L. Dowe
Male flowers [not vouchered]. © J.L. Dowe
Mature fruit [not vouchered]. © J.L. Dowe
Family

Beccari, O. in Schumann, K.M. & Hollrung, M. (1889) Die Flora von Kaiser Wilhelms Land : 16. Type: Papua New Guinea, Morobe Province, Finchaven, Hollrung 302.

Common name

Arenga

Stem

Multi-stemmed palm (1-3 dominant) up to 7 m tall with numerous suckers around the base, stems up to 15 cm dbh.

Leaves

Leaves pinnate, up to 4 m long. Leaflets 78-142 per leaf (ca. 30-70 pinnae on each side of leaf), narrow, stiff, pleated, dark green above and lighter below, apices notched and grows from the rachis at a 30° angle to create a V-shaped leaf. Terminal leaflets are fused at their bases and fishtail-like. Pinnae grey-green on underside. Crownshaft absent.

Flowers

Inflorescence from the upper leaf bases and progressively down the stem, 1-2 m long with 38-44 unbranched pendant panicles of yellowish male and female flowers. Sepals 3, petals 3. Flowers in clusters of 3, one female flower and 2 male flowers.

Fruit

Fruit globular and white to red when ripe, ca. 5-18 mm wide. 1-3 seeds per fruit. Seeds hard and smooth, globose to angled.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs in the NT, from Adelaide River east to the Gulf region, in small scattered populations. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 150 m. Grows in monsoon forest or moist vine forest. Also occurs in New Guinea.

Synonyms
Didymosperma microcarpum (Becc.) Warb. ex K.Schum. & Lauterb., Die Flora der Deutschen Schutzgebiete in der Sudsee : 204(1900), Type: . Arenga gracilicaulis F.M.Bailey, Queensland Agricultural Journal 2(3): 203(1898).
RFK Code
7033
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