Allagoptera

• Authority

  Moraes R., Mónica. 1996. (Palmae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 73: 1-35. (Published by NYBG Press)

• Family

  Arecaceae

• Scientific Name

  Allagoptera

• Type

  Type species. Allagoptera pumila Nees [= A. arenaria (Gomes) Kuntze]. Etymologically Allagoptera is derived from the Greek terms allage (exchange or change) and pteron (feather, wing, winglet). Apparently, the intention of Nees von Esenbeck (1821) was to name the plant in reference to the discontinuous spatial arrangement of the pinnae. The species epithet of A. pumila (diminutive, dwarf) refers to the plant s acaulescent habit.

• Synonyms

  Diplothemium

• Description

  
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  Genus Description - Monoecious, pleonanthic, acaulescent, unarmed, understory palms. Stems subterranean, solitary or sometimes clustered; creeping. Leaves pinnate, reduplicate with woolly hairs or ramenta on rachis and blades; sheaths fibrous with persistent short woolly indumentum; petiole slightly curved, 14-100 cm long; rachis 0.5 to 1 m long, triangular in crosssection; pinnae short to elongate, lanceolate, 20-70 per side, subopposite, irregularly arranged, inserted on rachis at acute angles (<45°) or spreading at various angles (near to perpendicular), the apex lobate or acute, split asymmetrically, with or without ramenta on midrib. Inflorescence spicate, protandrous, erect in bud, interfoliar, bisexual or occasionally unisexual; prophyll flattened, bicarinate 2-keeled; peduncular bract woody; flowers in spirally arranged triads, trimerous, sessile, the perianth parts cymbiform, gibbous, membranous to coriaceous; staminate flowers with 6-18 stamens; anthers slightly sagittate, medifixed near the base, the connective truncate; pollen monocolpate, spherical to ellipsoid, the exine tectate; pistillate flowers tricarpellate, triovulate with a minute apical trifid stigma. Fruit ellipsoid to turbinate, glabrous to variably covered by floccose or woolly hairs, subtended by a short to enlarged persistent perianth; seeds 1 (rarely 2) per fruit, developed from 1 carpel, with homogeneous endosperm; pores near the base of the endocarp; germination remote-ligular; eophyll entire, lanceolate or bifid.