A new hybrid palm and a ‘hidden’ island palm – the MBC team reports two new discoveries in the latest issue of PALMS.
Larry Noblick, MBC Palm Biologist, has described a new hybrid species, Syagrus x mirandana. This Brazilian savanna palm is a hybrid between S. coronata and S. microphylla. The trunkless palm resembles a grass, with a long, spikelike flower shoot which rises high above the grasslike foliage. Over the course of fieldwork in Brazil, Larry has discovered much new diversity in palms, and this new hybrid is another fascinating example of how palms have adapted to grassland environments.
Also reported here is a new population of Pseudophoenix sargentii from Mona Island (see January 23, below). Conservation concerns over these palms prompted Patrick Griffith (MBC Executive Director) to team up with botanists from Puerto Rico and FIU-Fairchild (Eugenio Santiago, Jose Sustache and Javier Francisco-Ortega) to assess these unique plants. The newly discovered population on Mona is notable for its striking appearance, and is featured on the cover of this issue, PALMS 56(3).
PALMS is the journal of the International Palm Society, presenting peer-reviewed botany and horticulture on the palm family since 1956.