Actinorhytis calapparia (Blume) H.Wendl. & Drude ex Scheff.

Calappa palm [W]

Actinorhytis is a monotypic genus of flowering plant in the palm family found in Oceania. The lone species, Actinorhytis calapparia is a rain forest inhabitant and has the largest fruit of any palm in the Iguanurinae.The genus name is from two Greek words meaning 'ray' and 'fold' which describe the endosperm of the seed.

The species is solitary trunked, reaching 12 to 14 m in height, and is relatively slender, usually no wider than 20 cm. At the base, the white to tan trunks are anchored by a large, conical mass of aerial roots and are topped by a distinct 1 m, crownshaft, slightly bulging at the base. The leaf crown is sparse but spherical, each arching leaf is around 3 m long with pinnately arranged, 45 cm leaflets which are dark green in color. The leaflets are closely and regularly ... ...Read More

[3]

VERNACULAR NAME[3]

GENUS [A]Actinorhytis

SUB-FAMILY [N]Arecoideae

TRIBE [N]Areceae

SUB-TRIBE [N]Archontophoenicinae

PUBLICATION [A]

Ann. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg 1: 156 (1876)

CONSERVATION STATUS [W]

CONSERVATION STATUS [W]

 BIOLOGY [C][3]

 Distribution [C][3]

Malay Peninsula, Thailand, Solomon Is., Sumatera, New Guinea

 USES [W]

 SYNONYMS [C]

Actinorhytis poamau Becc.
Areca calapparia Blume
Areca cocoides Griff.
Pinanga calapparia (Blume) H.Wendl.
Ptychosperma calapparia (Blume) Miq.
Seaforthia calapparia (Blume) Mart. 

 CULTIVATION

Cold Hardiness Zone (USDA) 11b

GROWTH RATE

MINIMUM TEMPERATURE

exposure

MAX HEIGHT

A. calapparia is widely cultivated in Southeast Asia and Malesia where villagers attribute it magical or medicinal powers, or as a substitute to betel. They have little tolerance for drought, requiring generous water as well as nutrient rich soil; they do, however, exhibit some tolerance to cold. 

 BIBLIOGRAPHY & SOURCES

[3] Govaerts, R. (1995). World Checklist of Seed Plants 1(1, 2): 1-483, 1-529. MIM, Deurne.
[3] Govaerts, R. & Dransfield, J. (2005). World Checklist of Palms: 1-223. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 

[A] Palmweb - Palms of the World Online - http://www.palmweb.org

[C] WCSP 2013. World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet; http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/ Retrieved 2011 onwards

[N] The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

[W] Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actinorhytis

eMonocot: http://e-monocot.org/taxon/urn:kew.org:wcs:taxon:2778

The World Checklist of Monocotyledons: http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/home.do

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI): http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

IUCN Red List: http://discover.iucnredlist.org

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