Tropicos | Name - Iriartea Ruiz & Pav.

Iriartea Ruiz & Pav.

Flora Data (Last Modified On 10/24/2012)

Genus	IRIARTEA Ruiz & Pav.
PlaceOfPublication	Fl. Peruv. & Chil. Prodr. 149. 1794.
Description	Tall erect slender unarmed monoecious pinnate-leaved palms with conspicuous brace-roots, notable crownshaft and often with bulged trunk: pinnae irregular, often split so that several of them appear to stand together on the rachis, usually broadened towards the apex and variously lobed or notched or erose at summit: spadices infrafoliar, below the prominent crownshaft, inclosed at first in papery cymbas: flowers typically in 3's on the simple rachillae (which are side-branches from the axis of the spadix), central flower pistillate and the laterals staminate but this disposition may not apply uniformly and a rachilla may be pistillate mostly on its lower part and staminate on the upper part; stamens usually fewer than 20, about equal in length to the broad envelopes, anthers long and filaments very short; pistillate flowers smaller than staminate; ovary 3-loculed, stigmas small, staminodia sometimes present: fruit subglobular, oblong or ovoid, 1- to 2-seeded; albumen homogeneous, embryo lateral or dorsal.
Note	About a half dozen species in South America, one of them reaching eastern Panama. Iriartea and Socratea are distinguished mainly by technical characters: Iriartea, spathes many, stamens commonly less than 20 and as few as 9 or 10, embryo dorsal or lateral; Socratea, spathes cymba-like, stamens commonly more than 20, usually 25-35, embryo subapical.