2010 Palm Literature Australian Palms

PALM S Dransfield: Palm Literature Vol. 54(3) 2010 PALM LITERATURE and ecology, including conservation status, highly detailed etymology and notes. Genera, AUSTRALIAN PALMS: and in some instances species too, are placed BIOGEOGRAPHY, in a phylogenetic framework, in the case of ECOLOGY AND SYSTE- genera, largely derived from Genera Palmarum MATICS. John Leslie Ed. 2 . Dowe. CSIRO Publish- ing, Collingwood, Dowe clearly relishes delving into the minutiae Victoria, Australia. 2010. of the etymology of each genus and species. In ISBN 9780643096158. some places, I feel a simple single phrase would Price AU$140.00. Soft have sufficed. For example, it takes five lines cover. Pp. 290. of text to explain the origin of maxima under Archontophoenix maxima . In one case, Australia with its offshore territories has 21 Linospadix the etymology seems just perverse genera and 60 species of palm – not a large to me – instead of being derived, as generally flora in relation to its size, but one of great accepted, from Greek Linon , flax or a thread, scientific interest. Furthermore, Australian and Greek spadix , from the slender thread-like palms include some of the most important inflorescences, Dowe suggests it is from the cultivated ornamental species. John Leslie Latin “ line ,” a twelfth of an inch (which in Dowe has written a book that deals with many any case should be linea ) and spadix . aspects of the palms of Australia, and this work Wendland, the author of the genus, would will be of lasting value to our knowledge of the have been unlikely to use a macaronic generic flora. It is also a beautiful book, lavishly and name, mixing Latin and Greek roots, and what consistently illustrated with color photographs has a twelfth of an inch to do with the and maps throughout. No one knows the threadlike inflorescence? palms of Australia better than John Dowe, and so it is excellent that he has synthesized what Although the text of the systematic part if the he knows into this single 290 page volume. All book is extremely thorough, there are some you need to know about Australian palms? – loose ends. One is in Livistona . An unusual well perhaps not everything, but there is an feature of the genus in Australia is the fact that immense amount of useful information in the there is variation in sexuality. The author book. describes two species, L. concinna and L. humilis , as being dioecious with male The book is divided into two main sections. inflorescences of a form different from that of The first provides a general introduction and the female, and borne on separate trees. No a discussion of the history of Australian palm differences in flowers are described or botany, historical biogeography and discussed, although close-up photographs of distribution and ecology. This is followed by male and female flowers of L. humilis are the second part, devoted to the systematics of included and do not seem to show any Australian palms, arranged according to the differences. All other species are described as latest generic monograph, Genera Palmarum being “functionally dioecious.” “Functionally” Ed. 2 . Finally there is a field key, a checklist, a is superfluous – if a palm is dioecious then it glossary, bibliography and index. is dioecious – that is its function. The chief glory of the book is the thorough Unfortunately, nowhere does John Dowe illustration of the species. Almost every species explain what he means by this. The flowers of is illustrated with high-quality, color all these Livistona spp. seem to be photographs illustrating details of habit (and hermaphroditic so where does the dioecy enter sometimes habitat too), leaves and/or crown, the story? Could it be that although the inflorescences, flowers of both sexes and fruit, inflorescences and flowers appear similar, only and a photograph of the type specimen. This certain trees bear fruit, and are hence female, is wonderfully valuable in genera such as while the others never fruit and are thus male? Linospadix and Archontophoenix where there Is there really no difference in appearance are several rather similar species – in fact, these between the flowers? This seems to me to be are easily distinguished in the superb such an interesting aspect of Livistona that I photographs. find it surprising and disappointing that there is no discussion at all of sexuality in this genus. For each genus and species there is a complete nomenclatural citation, properly typified, a For Lepidorrhachis , although John Dowe cites full description, a discussion of distribution the paper of Baker and Hutton ( Lepidorrhachis . 152 PALMS 54(3): 152 –154 PALM S Zona: Palm Literature Vol. 54(3) 2010 Palms 50: 33–38. 2006), he still describes the I feel that the field key could have been inflorescences as bearing triads of male and constructed in a more friendly way that relies female flowers, and makes no mention of the less on characters of flowers and fruit. observations in the Baker and Hutton paper However, even though there is a field key, the that Lepidorrhachis produces unisexual format of this book is not designed for it to be inflorescences (also reported in Genera taken in the field. The book at 21 × 27 cm and Palmarum Ed. 2 ), completely missing a very 290 pages means that the covers (paper) are unusual and important character of the genus. really too thin to support the book, and I This is bizarre when he also uses illustrations doubt it would withstand much fieldwork. taken from the Baker and Hutton paper to So, for whom has this book been written? It is illustrate male and female flowers, close-ups clearly not a field guide (but, incidentally that provide strong evidence for the would provide the perfect basic material for unisexuality of the inflorescences. developing a user friendly, pocket-sized field guide in the future, for which, I feel, there I have a few minor quibbles. The flange on would be a real market). The amount of detail the upper surface of the leaf rachis in Oraniopsis in the descriptions suggests that it is aimed at is certainly not unique – it’s also present in an academic audience, and it will be an Ceroxylon , Nypa occasionally has a ruminate invaluable reference. At $140 Australian dollars endosperm (not mentioned) and given the fact this is not a cheap book, which is a shame – that we have a recent monograph of the whole it is so beautiful and contains so much useful family at the generic level ( Genera Palmarum material that it deserves a wide readership Ed. 2 ), that accepts with good justification 183 among palm lovers, not just academics. genera, it seems rather contrary on page 54 of JOHN DRANSFIELD Australian Palms to use a total of ca. 190 genera. Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, UK BRAZILIAN FLORA the first time are Acrocomia emensis and Butia LORENZI ARECACEAE odorata . The authors’ species concepts are (PALMS) . Harri Loren- considerably narrower than that used by zi, Larry Noblick, Henderson et al. in their Field Guide to the Francis Kahn and Palms of the Americas (1995. Princeton Evandro Ferreira. University Press). All told, Lorenzi and co- Instituto Plantarum de authors recognize 300 species, nearly all of Estudos da Flora, Nova which get a full page treatment in this lavish, Odessa, Brazil. [www. large-format (31 × 21 cm) volume. plantarum.com.br]. 2010. 85-86714-35-1. Too large for a field guide, the book is intended Price $60.00. Hard- as an identification manual, although there cover. Pp. 384. are brief sections on general palm morphology and propagation from seed. A key to the Brazil is the largest country in South America, genera of Brazilian palms takes up only two with a correspondingly large number of pages of text. The genera and species are then different natural habitats, from ever-wet treated alphabetically and make up the bulk Amazonian rainforest to seasonally flooded of the book. Lorenzi is the author for most plains, cloud forest, dry scrub and grasslands. treatments, but other genera are treated by The palm flora of Brazil is, not surprisingly, Noblick ( Butia , Lytocaryum and Syagrus ), Kahn just as diverse and is the largest in South (Astrocaryum ) and Ferreira ( Bactris ). America. With the publication of this new book, the number of palm species in Brazil The glossy photographs that illustrate the just grew even larger. The new species species treatments are generally outstanding. described in this work (adding to the many Four poorly known Astrocaryum species are that were described earlier this year in illustrated by drawings, but each of the anticipation of the book) are Acrocomia remaining 296 species is illustrated by at least glaucescens , Butia catarinensis , B. lepidotispatha , one photo of the palm’s habit, along with a B. pubispatha , Geonoma bondariana , G. photo of flowers or fruits and a small but conduruensis , G. littoralis , G. meridionalis and useful distribution map. Readers familiar with G. telesana . New combinations published for Lorenzi’s work will recognize his blue grid 153 PALM S Zona: Palm Literature Vol. 54(3) 2010 background for the photos of flowers and citation of original publication, synonymy and fruits. What these compositions lack in artistry at least one voucher specimen. These extras they make up for in utility. The habits and do not detract from the book, but one wonders parts of small palms, such as many understory if they are necessary in pages that are already Geonoma species, were photographed with a crowded with text and illustrations. black backdrop that shows off the palms to Overall, I can recommend this book to anyone good advantage. wishing for an accessible account of the palms As an identification manual, the book is largely of Brazil.

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