水椰属 shui ye shu

Nipa Thunberg.

Stems creeping, seldom visible above mud in which they grow, rooting from abaxial surface, branching dichotomously, forming large colonies. Leaves 3-15, pinnate, stiff and erect; leaf sheaths open and relatively short; petioles elongate and stout; pinnae many, regularly arranged and spreading in same plane, with conspicuous, brown ramenta on abaxial surface along midveins. Inflorescences branched to 5 or 6 orders, borne on a stout stalk arising from center of leaves; flowers borne in dense heads; male flowers densely arranged along short rachillae, closely covered with light brown bracts; female flowers borne in dense, central heads. Fruits densely arranged in head-shaped clusters of many fruits, large, irregularly globose, flattened and angled, usually 1-seeded; endosperm homogeneous; eophylls bifid.

One species: from Sri Lanka through SE Asia to Japan (Ryukyu Islands), the Pacific islands (Solomon Islands), and just reaching Australia.

Lower Taxon

• Nypa fruticans Wurmb