Saribus rotundifolius | |
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Saribus rotundifolius at the Nong Nooch Tropical Garden, Thailand | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Monocots |
Clade: | Commelinids |
Order: | Arecales |
Family: | Arecaceae |
Tribe: | Trachycarpeae |
Genus: | Saribus |
Species: | S. rotundifolius
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Binomial name | |
Saribus rotundifolius | |
Synonyms [2] [3] | |
Saribus rotundifolius, also known as the footstool palm, [2] [4] [5] is a common fan palm found in Southeast Asia. [6] It is a member of the genus Saribus. [5] [7]
It is called anáhaw or luyong in Filipino. [4] In Malay the palm is known as serdang daun bulat. [2]
Saribus rotundifolius was first described as Corypha rotundifolia by the French Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1786. [8] It was moved to the Saribus genus by the German-Dutch botanist Carl Ludwig Blume in a publication issued in 1838 or 1839. [1] This move was generally not accepted by others in the field. In 2011, after DNA research, the reclassification from the Livistona genus to the resurrected genus Saribus was official. [7] [9] The generic epithet Saribus comes from a local name in one of the Maluku languages, as recorded by the Dutch, sariboe. [10] The specific epithet means 'round-leaved' in Latin. [9]
Saribus rotundifolius is a hermaphrodite fan palm. [2] The palm is evergreen, erect, and only grows having a single trunk ('solitary'). It grows at a height ranging from 15 to 25 metres, [11] exceptionally up to 45 metres tall, [2] and thickness of 15 to 25 cm diameter at breast height. [2] [11] Its trunk is smooth and straight with a shallow rings of leaf scars. [11] The trunk is rather massive and tapering. It usually grows to 60 feet (18 m) tall, but may rarely reach 90 feet (27 m) tall. The young trees have a green crown. This species is seldom seen with a slight skirt of drooping, dead leaves. The sheaths are chestnut brown in colour. [9]
The palmately-lobed leaves are spirally arranged around the trunk. The petioles are long. [9] [10] The entire leaf is some 1.2 metres in length. The leaf blade is entire in its centre, [9] and almost round in outline. It is regularly divided to about half of the length and 1.2 metres in diameter. [10] The leaf segments are forked, but not deeply, at their ends. [9] The leaf segments have one main nerve. [12]
The flowers are borne on an inflorescence with a long peduncle, about 0.9 to 1.2 metres long. The three-petalled flowers appear in bunches. [10]
The fruit is a fleshy drupe. [10] It is about 2cm in diameter, [9] [10] quite round, [9] and coloured brick red as it ripens, ultimately becoming black when ripe. [9] [10]
The palm is native to Sulawesi and the Maluku Islands in Indonesia, and the Philippines. The native distribution stretches from Banggi Island in Sabah, Malaysia, off the north-east coastal tip of Borneo in the west, to the Raja Ampat Islands near Maluku off the north-west tip of Bird's Head Peninsula in Indonesia's West Papua province in the east. Its northernmost native distribution is in the Philippines. [3] [5] It is abundant throughout the Philippines. [5] It has been introduced into the wild in Java, the Lesser Sunda islands, Peninsular Malaysia and Trinidad and Tobago. [3] It has also been introduced to India. [10]
On Java it occurs in the west and the central-eastern parts of the island. It is usually found as a cultivated plant, but already in the 1960s in some places it has escaped into the wild, becoming locally very numerous. [12]
The lepidopteran caterpillars of the species Suastus gremius and Elymnias hypermnestra have been recorded using Saribus rotundifolius as a host plant. [13] The tree only flowers after it becomes very old. Its flowers are pollinated by bees. [10]
Saribus rotundifolius can be grown in humid, tropical areas. It is a common landscaping plant in the Philippines, and has been widely cultivated in Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Java and elsewhere, for a long time. [7] [9] [12] The fruit are quite attractive. [10] It is cultivated as an ornamental throughout Colombia. [3]
The leaves are used for the thatching of roofs and wrapping food. Overharvesting of the leaves of plants causes a reduction in leaf size. The leaves do grow faster after harvest but tend to be smaller. [6]
The foliage of the Saribus rotundifolius is the unofficial national leaf of the Philippines. [14]
This plant species is common and has been classed as ' least concern'. [5]