16. Washingtonia H. Wendl. in Bot. Zeit. 37:68. 1879. Hook. f. in Benth. & Hook. f., Gen. Pl. 3:923. 1883; Becc. in Ann. Roy. Bot. Gard. Calc. 13: 307-308. 1933; Bailey in Gentes Herb. 4:51-82. 1936; Bailey, St. Cycl. Hort. 3:3506. 1950; Chittenden, Dict. Gard. 4:2263. 1951; Jepson, Man. Fl. Pl. Cal. 193. 1951; Palabin in Komarov, Fl. U.R.S.S. 3:374. 1964; Bailey, Man. Cult.Pl. (reprint. ed.) 168. 1966.
KAMAL A. MALIK
Trunk tall, massive, smooth, unbranched, upper part densely covered with dead leaves and petioles. Leaves large, costa-palmate, orbicular, plicate, deeply divided into numerous segments, lobed nearly to the middle, segments induplicate, numerous, margin and sinus usually filamentous; petiole armed, planoconvex, green margin strongly armed with hooked spines. Inflorescence axillary, long, much branched, branches more or less zigzag or wavy, slender, glabrous; bracts flattened and almost woody, glabrous. Flowers bisexual, small, white; calyx cup-shaped, trilobed; corolla longer than the calyx with narrow reflexed lobes; stamens 6, in two series, filaments free, fusiform; carpels 3, united by their styles. Fruit small black, ovoid-oblong with thin pericarp.
A genus with two species distributed in Western N. America. In Pakistan this genus is represented by one species, which is cultivated as an ornamental plant.
