Cortadera

Description

Asterogyne martiana is a species of flowering plant, palm, in the family Arecaceae. It is a genus closely allied with Calyptrogyne, from which it differs by the bifid connective of the anther and the non-caliptrate petals. It is used for roofing. They are small palms, completely unarmed, acaulescent or with thin, solitary stems, reaching up to 2 m tall; monoecious plants. The leaves are simple, bifid, with a wedge-shaped blade, 70-100 cm long and 15-25 cm wide, pinnatinervia with 30-40 pairs of main ribs, rachis 40-75 cm long; sheath inconspicuous, 20 cm long, petiole 15-30 cm long, flattened adaxially, convex and densely tomentose brown abaxially. Inflorescences interfoliar, erect to arching between leaves, 55-90 cm long, subdigitate branching, bractspeduncular 1 (or 2?), tubular, pointed, densely tomentose-lepidote brown, turning red when in fruit, stalk slender, 45-64 cm long after anthesis, densely tomentose-lepidote brown, rachis 0.5-3 cm long length; rhachillas (2-) 3-5 (-7), 10-24 cm long and 3-5 mm diam., often pointed, with whitish tomentum, with numerous deep pits covered by ovate bracts, each enclosing a triad; staminate flowers 6 mm long, creamy white, sepals irregular, elongated, carinate, petals almost equal to the sepals, connate in a tube for ca 2/3 of their length, valved at the apex, stamens6, versatile connective, bifid with separate inflexed thecae at bud, more or less erect at anthesis, short, 3-lobed pistil; asymmetric pistillate flowers, sepals free, glumaceous, imbricate, petals connate in a tube ca 2/3 of their length, glumaceous and valved at the apex, staminodes 6, connate basally and adnate to the petal tube, free at the apex. Fruits ellipsoid, slightly compressed, slightly carinate apically, 12 mm long and ca 6 mm in diameter, reddish turning black-purple, basal stigmatic residue, epicarp smooth and thin, mesocarp fleshy, with an inner layer of narrowly applied longitudinal fibers, endocarp thin, crustacean; seed 1, ellipsoidal to obovoid, slightly laterally compressed, ca 7.5 mm long and 4.5 mm wide, homogeneous endosperm, basal embryo, Common in undergrowth in rainforests, Atlantic and Pacific zones; at a height of 0-1000 m; it blooms all year in Nicaragua, Guatemala and Belize to Colombia.