Latania

Latania, commonly known as latan palm or latania palm, is a genus of flowering plant in the palm tree family, native to the Mascarene Islands in the western Indian Ocean.[1][2]

This article is about the palm. For the ski resort, see La Tania. For similar topics, see Latonia (disambiguation).

Latania
Red latan palm
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Arecales
Family: Arecaceae
Tribe: Borasseae
Genus: Latania
Comm. ex Juss.
Synonyms[1]
  • Cleophora Gaertn.

The genus contains three species, one from each of the three major islands (including islets) in the chain. All species have been ranked as Endangered by the IUCN.[3]

Latan palms are large, single-stemmed fan palms with separate male and female plants (dioecy); when the leaves fall, they leave scars on the trunks. Male flowers are small, in clusters, and emerge from within leathery bracts on the catkin-like inflorescences. Female flowers are larger, solitary and not concealed within bracts. The fruits contain 1-3 pyrenes, which are seeds enclosed within woody endocarps.[4] The endocarps have sculpted surfaces and the three species are readily distinguished from their pyrenes.[5]

Pyrenes (seeds within endocarps) of the three species of Latania: left, L. verschaffeltii; middle, L. lontaroides; right, L. loddigesii
  • Latania lontaroides
  • Latania verschaffeltii
  • Latania loddigesii
  • Fruits of Latania loddigesii
  • Female flowers of Latania loddigesii
  • Male flowers of Latania loddigesii

References
  1. Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
  2. Govaerts, R. & Dransfield, J. (2005). World Checklist of Palms: 1-223. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  3. "Latania conservation status". www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
  4. Dransfield, John; Uhl, Natalie W.; Asmussen, Conny B.; Baker, William J.; Harley, Madeline M.; Lewis, Carl E. (2008). Genera Palmarum - Evolution and Classification of Palms. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. ISBN 978-1842461822.
  5. Bayton, Ross P. Borassus L. and the borassoid palms - systematics and evolution (PhD Thesis). University of Reading.


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