Mt. Eke pritchardia

Description

Pritchardia forbesiana, the Mt. Eke pritchardia, is a species of palm tree. It is endemic to the island of Maui in Hawaii. It grows in forests. Populations are recovering since the removal of destructive feral pigs. The genus Pritchardia (family Arecaceae) consists of between 24 and 40 species of fan palms (subfamily Coryphoideae) found on tropical Pacific Ocean islands in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Tuamotus, and most diversely in Hawaii. The generic name honors William Thomas Pritchard (1829-1907), a British consul at Fiji. These palms vary in height, ranging from 6 to 40 m (20 to 131 ft). The leaves are fan-shaped (costapalmate) and the trunk columnar, naked, smooth or fibrous, longitudinally grooved, and obscurely ringed by leaf scars. The flowers and subsequent fruit are borne in a terminal cluster with simple or compound branches of an arcuate or pendulous inflorescence that (in some species) is longer than the leaves.