KAMAL A. MALIK

Tall or small monoecious palms. Trunk annulate, cylindrical, greyish in colour, solitary or branched at base, hepaxanthic. Leaves few but very large and broad, bipinnate, induplicate, terminal leaflet forked. Pinnae attached to the main rachis usually at right angles and dividing into many triangular pinnules which grow obliquely, pinnule with broad, blunt irregular toothed tip, bases swollen at the point of attachment. Bracts 3-5, fibrous, tubular. Inflorescence axillary but produced in basipetal sequence, shortly peduncled with drooping rachillae. Flowers spirally arranged in triads, male flowers: sepals 3, coriaceous; petals 3, joined at the base, much longer than the sepals; stamens numerous, connate at the base, female flowers: smaller than the male; sepals as in the male; petals 3, short, connate basally, coriaceous, rounded, lobes valvate. Ovary 3-celled; stigma sessile. Fruit globose, 1-2-seeded; seeds with ruminate endosperm.

A genus with 12 species, distributed in Ceylon, India, S. China, Malesia, Indonesia, New Guinea, Solomon Islands, North East Australia. Represented in Pakistan by one cultivated species.

Lower Taxon

• Caryota urens L.