Allagoptera arenaria (Gomes) Kuntze

Restinga Palm,Seashore palm [W]

Allagoptera arenaria, popularly known as seashore palm, is a fruit tree endemic to the Atlantic Coast of Brazil.
It grows in coastal strand, just above the high tide mark, and is widely cultivated as an ornamental throughout South America. The seashore palm is small in size, reaching about 6 feet (1.8 m) tall.
The spiky flower stalks have both male and female flowers, so one plant can produce seeds by itself. The female flowers and the fruits that follow are borne in distinct spirals.

The leaves of the seashore palm emerge right out of the ground from a subterranean trunk that is rarely visible, and grow in a swirling pattern, spreading out on different and seemingly random planes.
There are 6–15 bright green to silvery green pinnately compound (feather-like) ... ...Read More

Plant 1.5-2 m tall, stem to 1.5 m long, 10 cm diam., subterranean, rhizomatose. Leaves 6- 10; sheath not tubular, fibrous; peliole 45-60 cm long, ca. 1 cm diam., covered with woolly indumentum mostly on basal portion; rachis 50-55 cm long, smooth and glabrous or with scarce white glands or with woolly hairs; pinnae 35-53 per side, broad and long-lanceolate, with acute tips, regularly inserted in groups of (1-)2-3(-4), 2-3 cm apart, inserted to rachis and spreading at different angles, glabrous at base or with ramenta to 3 mm long, the transverse veinlets evident adaxially, lemon-green and lustrous waxy adaxially, brown-glaucous and waxy abaxially, obtuse apex asymmetrically split for 0.3-0.5 cm, with midrib prominent adaxially and depressed abaxially; basal pinnae 25-35 x 0.8-1.1 cm; middle pinnae 20-45 x 1.1-2 cm; apical pinnae 6-24 x 0.1-0.6 cm. Inflorescences 65-100 cm long; peduncle 55-85 cm long, 0.4-0.6 cm diam., robust, muricate, scarcely to densely covered with floccose hairs; rachilla 10-15 cm long, bearing scarious bracteoles; prophyll 20-30 cm, tubul ar, scarious, covered with woolly indumentum in base; peduncular bract 60-80 cm long, 3-6 cm diam., apiculate, woody, sulcate, beige externally, brown-violet and glabrous internally; peduncular bracts 1 or 2, 0.5-2.5 cm long, brown, scarious, revolute or apiculate, inserted 2 cm from apex of peduncle. Staminate flowers 9-11 mm long, the pedicel 3-5 mm, inserted perpendicular to rachilla; sepals free, glabrous, coriaceous, 2 ca. 5 x 1.5 mm, one larger ca. 7 x 1.5 mm; petals valvate, free, glabrous, coriaceous, ca. 6.5 x 3 mm; stamens (12-)14-18 proximally, sometimes 10 stamens distally, ca. 2.5 mm long, the filaments columnar, the anthers sagittate at both ends; pistillode simple. Pistillate flowers sessile on proximal 4-11 cm of rachilla; sepals free, trapezoid, ca. 5 x 6 mm, imbricate to the right, apiculate with papillose hairs on superior rim; petals free, triangular, ca. 5 x 4 mm, imbricate to the right, apiculate with papillose hairs on lateral to basal margins; staminodial ring to 1.5 mm with 6 short teeth; pistil conical, 3-4 mm; stigma trifid, glabrous. Fruit ovoid to turbinate, with orange to yellowish floccose hairs or tomentose from base of stigmas to middle, 1.2-2 cm long, 1- 1.3 cm diam., perpendicular to rachilla, the stigmatic remnants erect with stigmas to 3 mm long, the persistent perianth longer than ½ of fruit; seed 1-2; n = 16 (Read, 1966). [3]

VERNACULAR NAME[3]Brazil: buri da praia, cachandó, caxandó, côco da praia, coqueiro da praia, côco guriri, guri, guriri, imburi , pissandó, coqueiro dos areais, coqueiro guriri, buri da praia, puraná.

GENUS [A]Allagoptera

SUB-FAMILY [N]Arecoideae

TRIBE [N]Cocoseae

SUB-TRIBE [N]Attaleinae

PUBLICATION [A]

Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 726 (1891)

CONSERVATION STATUS [W]

CONSERVATION STATUS [W]

 BIOLOGY [C][3]

 Distribution [C][3]

Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil Northeast

 USES [W]

The seashore palm is cultivated extensively in South America for the edible fruits which are eaten fresh or made into a drink or jam. The leaves are used to make baskets and other woven objects. The generic name of the seashore palm, Allogoptera, comes from the Ancient Greek words αλλαγή (allage), meaning change, and πτερόν (pteron), meaning wing, and refers to the swirled, changing pattern of the feathery leaves. The species name, arenaria comes from the Latin, for "sandy" or growing in sandy sites.

 SYNONYMS [C]

Allagoptera pumila Nees
Cocos arenaria Gomes
Diplothemium arenarium (Gomes) Vasc. & Franco
Diplothemium littorale Mart.
Diplothemium maritimum Mart. 

 CULTIVATION

Cold Hardiness Zone (USDA) 9b

GROWTH RATE

MINIMUM TEMPERATURE

exposure

MAX HEIGHT

The seashore palm is one of the best palms for beach and coastal situations in subtropical and tropical settings. It requires moderate to full sunlight and is used as a beach screen, being very tolerant of extreme coastal and beach exposure, as well as salt spray.

In its native environment, the seashore palm is highly tolerant of poor soils that have good drainage, thriving in soils that are thoroughly moist. Considered a slow grower when it is young, the seashore palm propagates by seeds.
 

 BIBLIOGRAPHY & SOURCES

[3] Govaerts, R. & Dransfield, J. (2005). World Checklist of Palms: 1-223. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
[3] Lorenzi, H., Noblick, L.R., Kahn, F. & Ferreira, E. (2010). Brazilian Flora Arecaceae (Palms): 1-268. Instituto Plantarum de Estudos da Flora LTDA, São Paulo, Brazil.
[3] Govaerts, R. (1995). World Checklist of Seed Plants 1(1, 2): 1-483, 1-529. MIM, Deurne.
[3] Mónica Moraes, Flora Neotropica, monograph 73, Allagoptera 

[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/Allagoptera_arenaria

eMonocot: http://e-monocot.org/taxon/urn:kew.org:wcs:taxon:6143

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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