PRINCIPES The Needle Palm - Rhapidophyllum JOHN K. SMALL Reprintedwithout the footnotes,from JOURN-AhU?5r#t NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN

If one should thrust his hand close to in the lowlands, or some representativ€s the stem of this palm he would promptly retreating to the lowlands took shelter in understand why the name needle-palrn protected places and maintained a repre- lvas applied to this . Numerous long, sentatioqof the species to the present. slender, needle-like struclures constitrlte As a species the needle-palm does not an important part of the -sheath by suggest vigor or aggressiveness. It is, being woven together by coarse pliable rloubtless, one of those which is {ibers. on the verg€ of becoming extinct through Botanically, this palm, which is quit.: ratural agencies. Of course, this era oi unique in our flora, is only a little over extinction means a long period of time, .. century old. However, the needle-palm but were it not that the plant usualiv is suggestive o{ a very ancient type oI grows in the kind of place less frequently vegetation. Besides its very specializetl disturbed by man in his methods of civi leaf-sheath, its are dioecious; that lization, the time would be much shortened is, the staminate florvers and the pistil- try artificial agencies. Supposing the palm late flowers are borne on dilferent plants. really inhabitated the higher lands to the From the standpoint of plant geograpiryo northward of its present geographic area, rhe needle-palm is particularly instruc' ir now does not show any inclination to tive. Most of our native palms are related reestablish itself in its former domain. to tropical American species or are iden' Recent field studies have brought to tical with them. In som€ cases their arr- Light some very interesting facts in the cestors may have migrated from the West life history of this palm, and disclo;ed the Indies to . It is different in the reasons for its non-aggressiveness.For case of the needle-palm, for its relatives some reason the inflorescence, both stam- globe, are now on the opposite side of the inate and pistillate, is much contracted or, in other words, they inhabit southeost- or congested; even the spadix is short this ern Asia. The primitive history of and the clusters borne close to the lost. are plant is, of course, wholly We spadix are hidden in the mass of needles geographic range safe in believing that its and wool-like fibers, together with rnr.'re geologic timer $-as mor€ extensive in later or less accumulated foreign matter, in the to a than at present. It is now restricted crown of . The inflorescence never limited area in and near the southeastern F,rotrudes, not even in fruito as it does in Coastal Plain. It probably originated in our other palms. So exaggerated is thrs North Amer' or migrated to southeastern contraction of the inflorescence, that the the other types ica at the same time that whole cluster of {ruit remains in tire eastern North of plants that are common to crown until they either decay or sprout, if Asia flourished-- America and to eastern enough humus and moisture accompalry all eventso Tunzion, Croomia, Hugeria. At the cluster. If the do sprout, lhe geologic time. its ancestry is lost in seedlings rarely survive, for they usually As in the cases of some of our other have insufficient material to support Asiatic plant-relatives, this palm may have growth. We have found clusters of fruits, inhabitated the highlands, perhaps both mostly decayed, that have lain in the the high and the low country' or maybe crown of leaves for at least two years. cnly the more elevated parts. If this con' Under favorable circumstances the seed; dition existed before the glacial times, ihe sprout in situ. We have found clusters rigors of that period either exterminated of two dozen young seedlings standing the species in the highlands, sparing those in the crown of leaves, few, if any, of 5 PRINCIPES them, howevero with the slightest chatrce the needle-palm as Chamaerops Hystrix, of growing to maturity. Apparently the thus including it in the genus which em' only agency for distributing the seetls is braces the common palm of the Medirer- that of animals seeking the fruits as {cod, ranean region of the Old World. The but the chances for distribution by this specific name was well chosen. It mcans rnethod are limited on account of the porcupine, and refers to the stem, which armament which bristles about the {rui:- is bristly rsith the spines of the IeaI- "near cluster. sheaths. It'rvas discovered the town As a result of this decided limitation to of Savahnah, Georgia." Pursh refers tr-r the perpetuation of the speciesthrough the the plant as follows: "Tl-ris sexual method of reproduction, the needle singular palm grows in company palm, it would seem, has provided a vege- rvith others, and distinguishes itself by its tative method of continuing its existence. long aculei, resembling porcupine quill-", 1'he underground stem usually promptly and often growing to the length o{ m,rre produces one or more little protuberances. than fi{teen inches." These soon grow out as offsets, lengthen About four years a{ter Pursh descrihed to six to eighteen inches and support a the needle-palm, William Baldwin ivrote small palm at the tip. We have found par. a letter concerning the palms of Aurelia ents with as many as fi{teen small palms Island, Florida, in which he said: attached to the main stem. Of course, ooChamaeropshystrix is found along this is an effectual way of perpetuating n'ith the preceding (Sabal Adansonii)-- the species, but it does not tend to in- which it resembles closely, with the excep- crease the geographical area very rapidly. tion of its singular spines. It was discov' The progeny apparently remain attached ered by the late Mr. John Fraser, about to the parent stock until it dies. This sixteen years ago, near the city of Savan- process repeated many times would not nah." l'emove the ultimate descendants very far In 1817, Stephen Elliott printed rhe {rom the starting point. The offsets are following note in his sketch of the Botany quite sure of surviving, for the arrnament, of and Georgia: ryhich tends to restrict the distribution "This palm was first noticed by the o{ the fruits, also tends to protect the bud late Mr. Fraser. The leaves or fronds at- of the offset from the depredation of ro- tain the heights of four to five feet. It dents. is remarkable for the thorns, like por' Palms were less well understood by our cupine quills, which grow from the root, early American botanists than many of the intermingled with the fronds. It is found more widely distributed plants, and those in rich, clayey soils, along the margin of of the less remote parts of the country; swamps, and from its peculiar deep green 'Blue rhe lines of generic distinction were :rot color is sometimes called Palm' " at all clear to them. etto.t "Corypha If William Bartram's repens, In the following year Thomas Nuttall, {rondibus expansis, flabelliformibus, pli- having observed the plant, published a catis, stipit. spinosis" really refers to ihe note concerning it as follows, at the eame needle-palm, as some palm-students have time transferring it to the genus Sabal. 'The maintained, we have quite an early botani- fronds indistinguishable fronr cal starting-point for this plant, both in those of the preceding species (Scbal the matter of discovery and of nanre. Adansonii) by any other character than However, the application of the abole the appearance of long axillary spines; description to the palm in question is the inflorescence has not yet been com- doubt{ul, and we have now associated it pared; its rare occurence amidst so muclt with the saw-palmetto. of S. Adansonii leads to a suspicion of its Subsequent to the discovery, Frederick validity as a distinct species. In the vicin- Pursh named, described, and published ity of Savannah pointed out to me by lhe PRINCIPES kindness of Dr. Baldwin." Hermann Wendland and Oscar Drudc properly interpreted it. Heretofore this Several years later Thomas Nuttall, in very characteristic palm had masqueraded publishing some notes referring to plants "In under at least four generic names, Ch.am- collected by Nathaniel Ware said: uerops, Corypha, Sabal, Rhapis. Seeing this species, whose fronds resemble the that it belonged to none of these on ac- preceding (Sabal Adansonii), the stipe count of its different morphological char- is naked and triangular, not simply cou- acteristics in the leaves and inflorescencr,', vex beneath; in the basalar axils of whrch Wendland and Drude named it Rhapid- a matted tomentose substance, alrnost ophyllum, a name referring to the neet'lle- similar to coarse browrr wool" and inter- like structure in the leaf-sheath. mixed with spines half a foot long, and The needle-palm ranges naturally from rigid as needles, within these radical South Carolina to central Florida and Ala- sheathsis enclosedthe clandestinespatlix bama, and is, perhaps, in . It ioaded with hirsute brownish drupes, the grows mainly in low sandy woods and size of coffee berries, and recent possess- swamps. particularly in river s\{amps. ing an eatable sweetish pulp, with whiclr It also occurs in the limestone fern groi- the Aborigines are acquainted." toes o{ northern peninsula Florida, where Carl Friedrich von Martius, in his clas- it may be found in the low depressions, sic work on palms, after fully describing "Grows ol seated on top of the highest rock out- the plant, in Georgia, near says: crops where the plants are much reducet{ Savannah, and in other places, more fre- in size. However, it is in the alluvium of quent in Eastern Florida, Fraser, Bar- the swampy flood plains of rivers that the tram. Pursh. Nuttall. Ware. Called by the lralm reaches its maximum developrnent inhabitants, creeping palmetto." and best proportions. There it proves il- Nearly forty years more passed by dur- self to be the most graceful and beautiful ing which this palm, when re{erred t,r, o{ our stemless native palms. still appeared under the generic narne Its armament is such a conspicuous Chamaerops. character that the plant has often .been However, in 1876, students of the palms, called the oovegetableporcupine."

Pnorusson Anneroo Duceno, of Barranquilla, Colombia, transmits to the Society these succinct remarks on the palms of his country: "It may interest the readers of the Bulletin that the known Palm flora of Colombia-- which I believe to be second richest in the world, being preceded only by Brazil's-now exceeds300 species of 58 recognized genera, among which are found both the tallest and the smallest hinds, namely the lo{ty Quindio Wax Palm (Ceroxylon quind,iuensewhich at- tains a height of 160 feet-and occasionally as much as 200-and the recently described Malortiea pwnila, a dwarf scarcely two feet tall when {ully adult. "Colombia may also boast of the widest altitudinal range in Palm distribution: frt-rtn the sultrl, Iowland forests of the Tropical Zone teeming with species of many genera! tn the cold, rnisty upper slopes of the Andes wherc Ceroxylon utile is found grolving at 13,40C feet above sea level, not {ar below snow line."