Oraniopsis appendiculata
Bronze Palm
Bronze Palm
Wikipedia links: Angiosperms > Monocots > Arecales > Arecaceae > Oraniopsis appendiculata
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Common name: Bronze Palm
Conservation status: Least concern
Etymology:
Oraniopsis means "similar to Orania"
The Latin epithet translates to "appendaged".
Flowers:
The inflorescence emerges in the leaf crown and is shorter than the leaves, to 75 cm,
With superficially similar male and female flowers on separate plants
Fruit:
From one carpel, the fruit ripens to yellow or orange with one seed
Seed germination is a lengthy process, to a year or more, with some seeds resisting germination to four years
On sprouting, the plant is invariably slow-moving, failing to show trunk height for multiple decades
Unless the rate of growth markedly increases in later life, the biggest specimens in Queensland are probably several hundred years old
Leaves:
In juvenile life the plant is a ground-level rosette of 3 – 4 m pinnate leaves on short, wide petioles
In dense forests with little light they may be ground rosettes for up to 60 years, and in these conditions the leaf, stretching for sunlight, may elongate to 8 m
The pinnae are deep green above, glaucous below, regularly arranged with one fold
Once trunk forming, the leaf crown is feather-duster shaped, rarely hemispherical, the stiff leaves upward pointing, and usually persistent after dying, forming a skirt around the trunk
Stem & branches:
Trunks are gray, solitary, from 30 to 45 cm wide
Usually reaching to 6 m in height, though mature individuals in habitat can reach up to 18 m
It may be 20 or 30 years before an emergent trunk develops
Roots:
Habit:
A dioecious palm that is extremely slow growing
Habitat:
Mountainous rainforest
Mostly from 300 to 1500 m, they may be found on rocky hillsides and coastal sands but are most common in rainy, cloudy forests
They often grow in rich organic soil or basaltic medium, but are absent from deep soil and open plains
Distribution:
Queensland
Found between the Tully River area, down to the Big Tableland south of Cooktown, and as far inland as the Great Dividing Range southwest of Atherton
Additional notes:
Oraniopsis is a monotypic genus of flowering plant in the palm family
Despite bearing resemblance to their namesake, this plant is most closely related to the South American palm Ceroxylon, differing only in the amount of peduncular bracts, the bracteole flowers, and the free, rather than basally fused, petals
Sources of information: