Chamaedorea skutchii Standl. & Steyerm., Publ. Field Mus. Nat. Hist., Bot. Ser. 23: 206 (1947)

Primary tabs

Map uses TDWG level 3 distributions (https://github.com/tdwg/wgsrpd)

Guatemala present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B

GUATEMALA. Quetzaltenango. (Hodel, D. 1992. Chamaedorea Palms, The Species and Their Cultivation. The International Palm Society.)A

The description is from Standley and Steyermark (1947, 1958) who described and named C. skutchii from pistillate material only that Skutch collected on Volean Zunil in Quetzaltenango. Very rare and known with certainly only from the type, C. skutchii is close to and perhaps not distinct from C. nubium. Standley and Steyermark (1958) stated that C. skutchii differed in the imbricate pistillate sepals, shallower pits, and lack of staminodes. (Hodel, D. 1992. Chamaedorea Palms, The Species and Their Cultivation. The International Palm Society.)A

Wet forest on the Pacific slope; 2,400 m elevation. (Hodel, D. 1992. Chamaedorea Palms, The Species and Their Cultivation. The International Palm Society.)A

Honors Alexander F. Skutch, collector of the type. (Hodel, D. 1992. Chamaedorea Palms, The Species and Their Cultivation. The International Palm Society.)A

Habit: 2.5 m tall. Stem: 8-12 mm diam., internodes 2.5-4 cm long. Leaves: 4-5, pinnate; petiole to 22 cm long or more; rachis 22-27 em long, pale-backed; pinnae 9-11 on each side of rachis, 15-21 x 1.3-1.6 cm, subfalcate, long-attenuate, mostly alternate, 3 primary nerves slightly keeled and pale above, pale and shining below, secondaries very slender upper pair 20 cm long on upper margin, to 6 em wide, falcate, acuminate, pale below, outer side inconspicuously toothed, 4-6-nerved. Inflorescences: Staminate not seen. Pistillate infrafoliar; peduncle 21-35 em long, slender, nearly 4 mm wide at apex in fruit; rachillae 7, these rather markedly undulate especially toward tip, orange and thickened in fruit. Flowers: Staminate not seen. Pistillate borne in loose spirals, nerveless, ± longer than broad, distinctively sunken in slightly curved elliptic pits bordered on lower side by liplike margin; calyx I x 3 mm, shallowly lobed, sepals imbricate in basal 1/4, broadly rounded apically; petals 1.5 mm high, imbricate, subacute to rounded, becoming brown ?and narrowly dark-margined in fruit, one covering abortive carpels scarcely exceeding calyx, other two twice as long as sepals; staminodes lacking; pistil not seen. Fruits: 10 x 8 mm, obovoid-globose, black; seeds 8 mm long, globose-ovoid; abortive carpels adherent to perianth in fruit. (Hodel, D. 1992. Chamaedorea Palms, The Species and Their Cultivation. The International Palm Society.)A

A. Hodel, D. 1992. Chamaedorea Palms, The Species and Their Cultivation. The International Palm Society.

B. World Checklist of Arecaceae