Caribbean royal palm

Description

Roystonea oleracea, sometimes known as the Caribbean royal palm, palmiste, imperial palm or cabbage palm, is a species of palm which is native to the Lesser Antilles, Colombia, Venezuela, and Trinidad and Tobago. It is also reportedly naturalized in Guyana and on the islands of Mauritius and Réunion in the Indian Ocean. Roystonea oleracea is a large palm which reaches heights of 40 metres (130 ft). Stems are grey or whitish-grey. and range from 46–66 centimetres (18–26 in) in diameter. The upper portion of the stem is encircled by leaf sheaths, forming a green portion known as the crownshaft which is normally about 2 m (6.6 ft) long. Individuals are reported to have 16–22 or 20–22 leaves. Leaves consist of a 60–100 cm (24–39 in) long petiole and a 4–4.6 m (13–15 ft) rachis. The 1.4 m (4.6 ft) inflorescence bears white male and female flowers. Fruit are 12.6–17.6 millimetres (0.50–0.69 in) long and 7.6–10.4 mm (0.30–0.41 in) long, and turn purplish-black when ripe. Roystonea is placed in the subfamily Arecoideae and the tribe Roystoneae. The placement Roystonea within the Arecoideae is uncertain; a phylogeny based on plastid DNA failed to resolve the position of the genus within the Arecoideae.As of 2008, there appear to be no molecular phylogenetic studies of Roystonea and the relationship between R. oleracea and the rest of the genus is uncertain. The species was first described by Nikolaus von Jacquin in 1763 as Areca oleracea.The epithet oleracea means "vegetable- or herb-like", and is used in botanical Latin for edible or cultivated plants (as in Brassica oleracea or Portulaca oleracea). In 1838, Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius transferred it to the genus Oreodoxa as O. oleracea. Berthold Carl Seemann transferred it to the genus Kentia in 1838. In 1900 Orator F. Cook proposed a new genus for the royal palms,and moved this species from Oreodoxa to Roystonea the following year.