Roystonea oleracea
Encyclopedia
Roystonea oleracea, sometimes known as the Caribbean Royal Palm, palmiste, Imperial palm or cabbage palm, is a species of palm
which is native to the Lesser Antilles
, northern South America
and Trinidad and Tobago
.
which is normally about 2 m (6.6 ft) long. Individuals are reported to have 16–22 or 20–22 leaves. Leaves consist of a 60 centimetre long petiole
and a 4–4.6 m (13.1–15.1 ft) rachis
. The 1.4 m (4.6 ft) inflorescence
bears white male and female flowers. Fruit are 12.6–17.6 mm (0.496062992125984–0.692913385826772 ) long and 7.6 millimetre long, and turn purplish-black when ripe.
Roystoneae. The placement Roystonea within the Arecoideae is uncertain; a phylogeny based on plastid
DNA failed to resolve the position of the genus within the Arecoideae. As of 2008, there appear to be no molecular phylogenetic studies of Roystonea and the relationship between R. oleracea and the rest of the genus is uncertain.
The species was first described by Nikolaus von Jacquin
in 1763 as Areca
oleracea. The epithet oleracea means "vegetable- or herb-like", and is used in botanical Latin for edible or cultivated plants (as in Brassica oleracea
or Portulaca oleracea). In 1838, Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius
transferred it to the genus Oreodoxa as O. oleracea. Berthold Carl Seemann
transferred it to the genus Kentia in 1838. In 1900 Orator F. Cook
proposed a new genus for the royal palms, and moved this species from Oreodoxa to Roystonea the following year.
In 1825 Curt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel described Euterpe
caribaea, citing Jacquin's A. oleracea as a synonym. In 1903 Carl Lebrecht Udo Dammer
and Ignatz Urban
transferred this species to the genus Oreodoxa. Percy Wilson moved it to Roystonea in 1917. Since Sprengel was aware of Jacquin's description, his name is superfluous. Liberty Hyde Bailey
described Roystonea venezuelana in 1949 based on a collection by Julian Steyermark
. In his 1996 monograph on the genus Roystonea, Scott Zona reported that he was "unable to find any consistent morphological or molecular differences between the two taxa", and placed R. venezuelana in synonym with R. oleracea.
Based on cultivated plants at the Botanic Garden in Georgetown
, Guyana
(then British Guiana
), John Frederick Waby described Oreodoxa regia var. jenmanii in 1919. The distinguishing feature of this variety was the fact that it held its lowest leaves at a 45° angle above horizontal. In 1935 Bailey described R. oleracea var. excelsior based on specimens collected from the Georgetown Botanic Gardens. Hyde cited Waby's name as an unpublished synonym, apparently unaware that Waby's name was a valid, published name. In 1996 Zona coined a new combination, R. oleracea var. jenmannii to correct Hyde's mistake and update Waby's name. However, he noted that this variety, which was only known from cultivation, did not differ from the typical in floral or fruit characters. Rafaël Govaerts merged the variety into synonym with the typical variety.
, mapórbot in Jitnu and mapoloboto in Sikuani
. It is also called the "cabbage tree", "palmetto royal", palmier franc and chou palmiste, among other names.
, Dominica
and Martinique
in the Lesser Antilles, Barbados
, Trinidad and Tobago
, northern Venezuela
and northeastern Colombia
. It is naturalised
in Antigua
, Guyana
, Suriname
and French Guiana
. It often grows in areas subject which are wet for at least part of the year—coastal areas near the sea, gallery forest
s in seasonally flooded savanna
s.
s in Nariva Swamp
, Trinidad and Tobago. Over the course of a study conducted between 1995 and 1996, R. oleracea fruit was an important element of the diet of both species between June and January, and was their dominant food item from July to November.
s can be fermented to produce alcohol. In his 1750 Natural History of Barbados Griffith Hughes
reported that the immature inflorescences could be pickled and eaten as a vegetable.
Arecaceae
Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...
which is native to the Lesser Antilles
Lesser Antilles
The Lesser Antilles are a long, partly volcanic island arc in the Western Hemisphere. Most of its islands form the eastern boundary of the Caribbean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean, with the remainder located in the southern Caribbean just north of South America...
, northern South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
and Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
.
Description
Roystonea oleracea is a large palm which reaches heights of 40 metres (131.2 ft). Stems are grey or whitish-grey. and range from 46–66 cm (18.1–26 ) in diameter. The upper portion of the stem is encircled by leaf sheaths, forming a green portion known as the crownshaftCrownshaft
An elongated circumferential leaf base formation present on some species of palm is called a crownshaft.The leaf bases of some pinnate leaved palms form a sheath at the top of the trunk surrounding the bud where all the subsequent leaves are formed.The crownshaft...
which is normally about 2 m (6.6 ft) long. Individuals are reported to have 16–22 or 20–22 leaves. Leaves consist of a 60 centimetre long petiole
Petiole (botany)
In botany, the petiole is the stalk attaching the leaf blade to the stem. The petiole usually has the same internal structure as the stem. Outgrowths appearing on each side of the petiole are called stipules. Leaves lacking a petiole are called sessile, or clasping when they partly surround the...
and a 4–4.6 m (13.1–15.1 ft) rachis
Rachis
Rachis is a biological term for a main axis or "shaft".-In zoology:In vertebrates a rachis can refer to the series of articulated vertebrae, which encase the spinal cord. In this case the rachis usually form the supporting axis of the body and is then called the spine or vertebral column...
. The 1.4 m (4.6 ft) inflorescence
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...
bears white male and female flowers. Fruit are 12.6–17.6 mm (0.496062992125984–0.692913385826772 ) long and 7.6 millimetre long, and turn purplish-black when ripe.
Taxonomy
Roystonea is placed in the subfamily Arecoideae and the tribeTribe (biology)
In biology, a tribe is a taxonomic rank between family and genus. It is sometimes subdivided into subtribes.Some examples include the tribes: Canini, Acalypheae, Hominini, Bombini, and Antidesmeae.-See also:* Biological classification* Rank...
Roystoneae. The placement Roystonea within the Arecoideae is uncertain; a phylogeny based on plastid
Plastid
Plastids are major organelles found in the cells of plants and algae. Plastids are the site of manufacture and storage of important chemical compounds used by the cell...
DNA failed to resolve the position of the genus within the Arecoideae. As of 2008, there appear to be no molecular phylogenetic studies of Roystonea and the relationship between R. oleracea and the rest of the genus is uncertain.
The species was first described by Nikolaus von Jacquin
Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin
Nikolaus Joseph Freiherr von Jacquin or Baron Nikolaus von Jacquin. was a scientist who studied medicine, chemistry and botany....
in 1763 as Areca
Areca
Areca is a genus of about 50 species of single-stemmed palms in the family Arecaceae, found in humid tropical forests from Malaysia to the Solomon Islands. The generic name Areca is derived from a name used locally on the Malabar Coast of India....
oleracea. The epithet oleracea means "vegetable- or herb-like", and is used in botanical Latin for edible or cultivated plants (as in Brassica oleracea
Brassica oleracea
Brassica oleracea, or wild cabbage, is a species of Brassica native to coastal southern and western Europe, where its tolerance of salt and lime and its intolerance of competition from other plants typically restrict its natural occurrence to limestone sea cliffs, like the chalk cliffs on both...
or Portulaca oleracea). In 1838, Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius
Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius
Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius was a German botanist and explorer.Martius was born at Erlangen, where he graduated M.D. in 1814, publishing as his thesis a critical catalogue of plants in the botanic garden of the university...
transferred it to the genus Oreodoxa as O. oleracea. Berthold Carl Seemann
Berthold Carl Seemann
Berthold Carl Seemann 25 February 1825 Hanover, Germany - 10 October 1871 Nicaragua, Central America, was a German botanist. He travelled widely and collected and described plants from the Pacific and South America....
transferred it to the genus Kentia in 1838. In 1900 Orator F. Cook
Orator F. Cook
Orator Fuller Cook was an American botanist, entomologist, and agronomist. Cook, born in Clyde, New York in 1867, graduated from Syracuse University in 1890. He worked for one year as an instructor at Syracuse. In 1891 Cook became a special agent of the New York State Colonization Society. He...
proposed a new genus for the royal palms, and moved this species from Oreodoxa to Roystonea the following year.
In 1825 Curt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel described Euterpe
Euterpe (genus)
Euterpe is a genus of palm tree, containing eight species that are native to Central and South America, from Belize southward to Brazil, Peru and Argentina. These palms grow mainly in swamps and floodplains....
caribaea, citing Jacquin's A. oleracea as a synonym. In 1903 Carl Lebrecht Udo Dammer
Carl Lebrecht Udo Dammer
Carl Lebrecht Udo Dammer was a German botanist.- Work :* Handbuch für Pflanzensammler . Stuttgart 1891.* Anleitung für Pflanzensammler . Stuttgart 1894....
and Ignatz Urban
Ignatz Urban
Ignatz Urban was a German botanist. He is known for his contributions to the flora of the Caribbean and Brazil, and for his work as curator of the Berlin Botanical Garden. Born the son of a brewer, Urban showed an interest in botany as an undergraduate...
transferred this species to the genus Oreodoxa. Percy Wilson moved it to Roystonea in 1917. Since Sprengel was aware of Jacquin's description, his name is superfluous. Liberty Hyde Bailey
Liberty Hyde Bailey
Liberty Hyde Bailey was an American horticulturist, botanist and cofounder of the American Society for Horticultural Science.-Biography:...
described Roystonea venezuelana in 1949 based on a collection by Julian Steyermark
Julian Alfred Steyermark
Julian Alfred Steyermark was an American botanist. His focus was on New World vegetation, and he specialized in the family Rubiaceae.- Life and work :...
. In his 1996 monograph on the genus Roystonea, Scott Zona reported that he was "unable to find any consistent morphological or molecular differences between the two taxa", and placed R. venezuelana in synonym with R. oleracea.
Based on cultivated plants at the Botanic Garden in Georgetown
Georgetown, Guyana
Georgetown, estimated population 239,227 , is the capital and largest city of Guyana, located in the Demerara-Mahaica region. It is situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the mouth of the Demerara River and it was nicknamed 'Garden City of the Caribbean.' Georgetown is located at . The city serves...
, Guyana
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
(then British Guiana
British Guiana
British Guiana was the name of the British colony on the northern coast of South America, now the independent nation of Guyana.The area was originally settled by the Dutch at the start of the 17th century as the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice...
), John Frederick Waby described Oreodoxa regia var. jenmanii in 1919. The distinguishing feature of this variety was the fact that it held its lowest leaves at a 45° angle above horizontal. In 1935 Bailey described R. oleracea var. excelsior based on specimens collected from the Georgetown Botanic Gardens. Hyde cited Waby's name as an unpublished synonym, apparently unaware that Waby's name was a valid, published name. In 1996 Zona coined a new combination, R. oleracea var. jenmannii to correct Hyde's mistake and update Waby's name. However, he noted that this variety, which was only known from cultivation, did not differ from the typical in floral or fruit characters. Rafaël Govaerts merged the variety into synonym with the typical variety.
Common names
Roystonea oleracea is known as the "palmiste" in Trinidad and Tobago, the "royal palm" or "cabbage palm" in Barbados and chaguaramo or maparó in Venezuela. In Colombia it is known as mapora in SpanishSpanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, mapórbot in Jitnu and mapoloboto in Sikuani
Guahibo language
Guahibo, the native language of the Guahibo people, is a Guahiban language that is spoken by about 23,006 people in Colombia and additional 8,428 in Venezuela. There is a 40% rate of monolingualism, and a 45% literacy rate.-Stress:...
. It is also called the "cabbage tree", "palmetto royal", palmier franc and chou palmiste, among other names.
Distribution
Roystonea oleracea is native to GuadeloupeGuadeloupe
Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...
, Dominica
Dominica
Dominica , officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of . The Commonwealth...
and Martinique
Martinique
Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
in the Lesser Antilles, Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
, Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
, northern Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
and northeastern Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
. It is naturalised
Naturalisation (biology)
In biology, naturalisation is any process by which a non-native organism spreads into the wild and its reproduction is sufficient to maintain its population. Such populations are said to be naturalised....
in Antigua
Antigua
Antigua , also known as Waladli, is an island in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua means "ancient" in Spanish and was named by Christopher Columbus after an icon in Seville Cathedral, Santa Maria de la...
, Guyana
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
, Suriname
Suriname
Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...
and French Guiana
French Guiana
French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...
. It often grows in areas subject which are wet for at least part of the year—coastal areas near the sea, gallery forest
Gallery forest
Gallery forests are evergreen forests that form as corridors along rivers or wetlands and project into landscapes that are otherwise only sparsely treed such as savannas, grasslands or deserts....
s in seasonally flooded savanna
Savanna
A savanna, or savannah, is a grassland ecosystem characterized by the trees being sufficiently small or widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of C4 grasses.Some...
s.
Ecology
Roystonea oleracea fruit is an important component of the diet of Orange-winged Amazon parrots and Red-bellied MacawRed-bellied Macaw
The Red-bellied Macaw, Orthopsittaca manilata, is a medium-sized, mainly green parrot. It is the only species of the genus Orthopsittaca, and it does not have any subspecies....
s in Nariva Swamp
Nariva Swamp
The Nariva Swamp is the largest freshwater wetland in Trinidad and Tobago and has been designated a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention...
, Trinidad and Tobago. Over the course of a study conducted between 1995 and 1996, R. oleracea fruit was an important element of the diet of both species between June and January, and was their dominant food item from July to November.
Uses
The tallest and "most majestic" royal palm, Roystonea oleracea is often used as an ornamental. The wood can be used for construction. The terminal bud is edible. The sap of young inflorescenceInflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...
s can be fermented to produce alcohol. In his 1750 Natural History of Barbados Griffith Hughes
Griffith Hughes
The Reverend Griffith Hughes , FRS, was a naturalist and author. Hughes wrote The Natural History of Barbados, which included the first description of the grapefruit...
reported that the immature inflorescences could be pickled and eaten as a vegetable.