Solitaire palm

Description

Ptychosperma elegans, commonly known as the solitaire palm (or elegant palm after the scientific name), is a very slender palm endemic to Queensland in Australia. In the nursery trade and in the United States it may be confusingly referred to as Alexander palm, which is an often-used but misnomered name of another Australian palm species Archontophoenix alexandrae, the Alexandra palm (note the difference in gender between the two names). Ptychosperma elegans is a solitary-stemmed palm growing to a height of 10–12 m (33–39 ft). The slender stem measures up to 8–10 cm (3.1–3.9 in) in diameter, is slightly bulging at the base, is light grey in colour, and has prominent leaf scars encircling the trunk. The crown usually has 7 to 11 pinnate fronds that reach lengths of around 3 metres (9.8 ft). The petiole (leaf stem) is around 30 cm (12 in) long; the crownshaft around 60 cm (24 in) long and mid-green in colour with a whitish waxy coating. The pinnae (leaflets) number between 30 to 60 on each side of the rachis or midrib, measure up to 84 cm (33 in) in length at the middle of the frond and shorter at each end, and have an obliquely praemorse tip (i.e. with a jagged edge like a fishtail). Inflorescences are about 70 cm (28 in) long and produced on the trunk just below the crownshaft. Flowers are grouped in sets of 3, each with one pistillate (functionally female) and two staminate (functionally male) flowers. They are light green with 3 sepals and 3 petals; staminate flowers are about 6 mm (0.24 in) long with 12-22 stamens, pistilate flowers measure about 5 mm (0.20 in) and have 6 staminodes and a 1 mm (0.039 in) recurved stigma. Fruits of Ptychosperma elegans measure 9–15 mm (0.35–0.59 in) long and 8–10 mm (0.31–0.39 in) wide, are bright red when ripe and the remains of the stigma is attached at one end. There is a thin layer of flesh around the solitary seed, which is about 10 mm (0.39 in) long and 7 mm (0.28 in) wide with five deep longitudinal grooves.