Borassus L., Sp. Pl. : 1187 (1753)

Primary tabs

https://media.e-taxonomy.eu/palmae/photos/palm_tc_346107_4.jpg

Distribution

Map uses TDWG level 3 distributions (https://github.com/tdwg/wgsrpd)
Bangladesh present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Benin present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Burkina present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Cambodia present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Cameroon present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Central African Republic present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Chad present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
China South-Central present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Comoros present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Ethiopia present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Ghana present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Guinea-Bissau present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
India present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Ivory Coast present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Jawa present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Kenya present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Laos present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Lesser Sunda Is. present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Madagascar present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Malawi present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Malaya present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Mali present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Mozambique present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Myanmar present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
New Guinea present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Niger present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Nigeria present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Northern Provinces present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Senegal present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Socotra present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Sri Lanka present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Sudan present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Sulawesi present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Tanzania present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Thailand present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Togo present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Uganda present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Vietnam present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Zaire present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Zambia present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Zimbabwe present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Six species have been recognised. They occur in Africa, Madagascar, north-eastern Arabia, through India and Southeast Asia to New Guinea and Australia. Borassus is one of the most widespread palm genera. (Dransfield, J., Uhl, N., Asmussen, C., Baker, W.J., Harley, M. & Lewis, C. 2008: Genera Palmarum. The evolution and classification of palms)A

Discussion

  • Can be recognised by the large stiff costapalmate leaves with both adaxial and abaxial hastulae, and by the large irregular teeth on the petiole. (Dransfield, J., Uhl, N., Asmussen, C., Baker, W.J., Harley, M. & Lewis, C. 2008: Genera Palmarum. The evolution and classification of palms)A

Diagnosis

  • Large dioecious tree fan palms of Africa, Madagascar, the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, and the drier parts of Malesia; distinctive in the leaves with spiny petiole margins, the spines often very irregularly shaped, and large fruit with the endocarp usually lacking internal flanges that penetrate the homogeneous endosperm. (Dransfield, J., Uhl, N., Asmussen, C., Baker, W.J., Harley, M. & Lewis, C. 2008: Genera Palmarum. The evolution and classification of palms)A

Biology And Ecology

  • Borassus flabellifer can occur in some mountain districts of India at elevations of 500–800 m, and is also found on banks of rivers. It is most abundant, however, on low sandy plains near sea level where exposed to sun and winds. In Africa, B. aethiopum occurs in open secondary forest and savannah. (Dransfield, J., Uhl, N., Asmussen, C., Baker, W.J., Harley, M. & Lewis, C. 2008: Genera Palmarum. The evolution and classification of palms)A

Common Name

  • Toddy or wine palm, lontar, palmyra, or siwalan (Borassus flabellifer). (Dransfield, J., Uhl, N., Asmussen, C., Baker, W.J., Harley, M. & Lewis, C. 2008: Genera Palmarum. The evolution and classification of palms)A

Etymology

  • Said to be derived from borassos, an immature inflorescence of the date palm, but why Linnaeus should have used this name is not clear. (Dransfield, J., Uhl, N., Asmussen, C., Baker, W.J., Harley, M. & Lewis, C. 2008: Genera Palmarum. The evolution and classification of palms)A

Uses

  • Borassus flabellifer is one of the most intensively used palms. Leaves have been used for writing; wood is valuable for building; inflorescences are tapped and the syrup, sugar, or alcohol may be a staple (Fox 1977). (Dransfield, J., Uhl, N., Asmussen, C., Baker, W.J., Harley, M. & Lewis, C. 2008: Genera Palmarum. The evolution and classification of palms)A

Description

  • Tall, robust, solitary, armed, pleonanthic, dioecious, tree palms. Stem massive, covered in a lattice of leaf bases abscising cleanly in older specimens, then rough, ringed with wide leaf scars. Leaves induplicate, strongly costapalmate; sheath open early in development, later with a wide triangular cleft at the base of the petiole; petiole deeply channelled adaxially, rounded abaxially, surfaces smooth to minutely rough, margins of sheath and petiole armed with coarse irregular teeth; adaxial hastula conspicuous, triangular or scalloped, abaxial hastula a low ridge (?always); blade suborbicular to flabellate, divided along adaxial folds to ca. 1/2 its length into regular, stiff single-fold segments, these shortly bifid, interfold filaments present or absent, surfaces smooth, ramenta or tomentum along abaxial costa and ridges of folds, midribs prominent abaxially, transverse veinlets conspicuous, short, numerous. Inflorescences interfoliar, shorter than the leaves, the staminate and pistillate dissimilar. Staminate inflorescence branched to 2 orders; peduncle very short; prophyll 2-keeled, with long tubular base, limb short, pointed, variously split apically; (?)peduncular bracts lacking; rachis also short, rachis bracts similar to the prophyll; first-order branches long, flattened, each bearing a prophyll and branched digitately into several (1–3) rachillae; rachillae large, catkin-like, elongate, bearing spirally arranged, imbricate bracts, connate laterally and distally to form large pits, each containing a reflexed cincinnus of ca. 30 staminate flowers, exserted singly in succession from the pit mouth. Staminate flowers each subtended by a long membranous bracteole; sepals 3, asymmetrical, connate only basally or to 2/3 their length, distinct lobes keeled, elongate, membranous, stiff; corolla with a long stalk-like base and 3 short, rounded lobes, ridged adaxially; stamens 6, filaments short, triangular, anthers medifixed, elongate, latrorse; pistillode small, conical. Pollen ellipsoidal, bi-symmetric; aperture a distal sulcus; ectexine tectate, reticulate or finely perforate-rugulate, rarely foveolate-reticulate, with psilate supratectal gemmae, aperture margin similar but often without supratectal gemmae; infratectum columellate; longest axis 42–85 µm [2/6]. Pistillate inflorescence unbranched or with a single first-order branch; peduncle short; prophyll tubular, pointed, 2-keeled, split ventrally about 1/2 its length; peduncular bracts few (2 or more), if present as long as or longer than the peduncle; rachilla massive, bearing large cupular bracts, the first few empty, the subsequent each subtending a single pistillate flower, several empty bracts above the flowers. Pistillate flowers large, each bearing 2 lateral cup-like, rounded, leathery, bracteoles; sepals 3 distinct, imbricate, thick, rounded; petals 3, similar to sepals; staminodes triangular, connate basally in a low cupule, sterile anthers present or not; gynoecium rounded, tricarpellate, with a central, basal septal nectary, stylar region hemispherical, stigma a low knob, carpels each with a basal, orthotropous ovule, and 2 lateral bodies, perhaps vestigial ovules. Fruit large, rounded, sometimes wider than long, bearing 1–3 seeds, stigmatic remains apical, perianth enlarged, persistent; epicarp smooth, mesocarp thick, fibrous, often fragrant, endocarp comprising 3 hard bony pyrenes. Seed shallowly to deeply bilobed, pointed, basally attached, endosperm homogeneous with a central hollow; embryo apical. Germination remote-tubular; eophyll undivided, elliptical. Cytology: 2n = 36. (Dransfield, J., Uhl, N., Asmussen, C., Baker, W.J., Harley, M. & Lewis, C. 2008: Genera Palmarum. The evolution and classification of palms)A

Anatomy

  • Leaf (Tomlinson 1961), root (Seubert 1997). (Dransfield, J., Uhl, N., Asmussen, C., Baker, W.J., Harley, M. & Lewis, C. 2008: Genera Palmarum. The evolution and classification of palms)A

Fossil record

  • A well-preserved leaf impression, Amesoneuron borassoides, from the Indian Deccan Intertrappean of Madhya Pradesh (although the age span of these volcanic deposits is controversial, see Chapter 5) is described by Bonde (1986a) and compared, particularly, with Borassus. An Upper Cretaceous (Senonian) seed was compared with Borassus (Monteillet and Lappartient 1981), but this comparison has proved to be incorrect (Uhl and Dransfield 1987; Bayton 2005). Fossil stem, Palmoxylon aschersonii, from Paleogene and Neogene of Algeria and Lower Miocene of Libya is compared with Borassus aethiopum (Louvet and Magnier 1971; Boureau 1947; Boureau et al. 1983), but this is considered a doubtful comparison (Bayton 2005). From the Indian Miocene, petrified stems, Palmoxylon coronatum, are also compared with Borassus (Mahabalé 1959, Sahni 1964, Roy and Ghosh 1980). Fossil palm roots from the Deccan Intertrappean of Nahwargaon, Maharashtra (Ambwani 1981) is compared with B. flabellifer. (Comparisons of palm stem wood or root to generic level should always be viewed with caution). A seed, Upper Senonian (Monteillet and Lapartient 1981), seems very questionable. (Dransfield, J., Uhl, N., Asmussen, C., Baker, W.J., Harley, M. & Lewis, C. 2008: Genera Palmarum. The evolution and classification of palms)A

Relationships

  • Borassus is a strongly supported monophyletic group (Bayton 2005) that is resolved as sister to Borassodendron with moderate to high support (Uhl et al. 1995, Bayton 2005, Asmussen et al. 2006). For interspecific relationships, see Bayton (2005). (Dransfield, J., Uhl, N., Asmussen, C., Baker, W.J., Harley, M. & Lewis, C. 2008: Genera Palmarum. The evolution and classification of palms)A

Taxonomic accounts

  • Beccari (1924) and Bayton (2007). (Dransfield, J., Uhl, N., Asmussen, C., Baker, W.J., Harley, M. & Lewis, C. 2008: Genera Palmarum. The evolution and classification of palms)A

Bibliography

    A. Dransfield, J., Uhl, N., Asmussen, C., Baker, W.J., Harley, M. & Lewis, C. 2008: Genera Palmarum. The evolution and classification of palms
    B. World Checklist of Arecaceae