Copernicia Mart. ex Endl., Gen. Pl. : 253 (1837)

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Placement status: taxon unplaced
https://media.e-taxonomy.eu/palmae/photos/palm_tc_46708_4.jpg

Distribution

Map uses TDWG level 3 distributions (https://github.com/tdwg/wgsrpd)
Argentina Northeast present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Bolivia present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Brazil North present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Brazil Northeast present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Brazil West-Central present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Colombia present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Cuba present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Dominican Republic present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Haiti present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Netherlands Antilles present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Paraguay present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Venezuela present (World Checklist of Arecaceae)B
Twenty-one species, three in South America, two in Hispaniola, the remainder in Cuba and several described naturally occurring hybrids. (Dransfield, J., Uhl, N., Asmussen, C., Baker, W.J., Harley, M. & Lewis, C. 2008: Genera Palmarum. The evolution and classification of palms)A

Discussion

  • There is considerable diversity in the genus, especially in Cuba. The very large hastulae of some species, e.g., Copernicia macroglossa, are most remarkable but their functional significance, if any, has yet to be explained. Another unusual feature is the presence in some species of completely tubular rachilla bracts subtending the flower clusters. Some of the largest species, such as C. baileyana, make most imposing ornamentals but these are notoriously slow growing. (Dransfield, J., Uhl, N., Asmussen, C., Baker, W.J., Harley, M. & Lewis, C. 2008: Genera Palmarum. The evolution and classification of palms)A

Diagnosis

  • Moderate to massive usually solitary hermaphroditic fan palms, native to Cuba, where there is a great radiation of species, and to Hispaniola and South America; the highly branched inflorescence usually has rachillae with completely tubular bracts and the endosperm is ruminate. (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

  • In the Caribbean, the species occur in savannahs or woodlands in the lowlands in relatively dry situations. The South American species occur in pure natural stands. Copernicia prunifera is found in vast natural stands in Brazil and grows in areas prone to seasonal flooding. (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

  • Carnauba (Copernicia prunifera), petticoat palm (C. macroglossa), caranda palms. (Dransfield, J., Uhl, N., Asmussen, C., Baker, W.J., Harley, M. & Lewis, C. 2008: Genera Palmarum. The evolution and classification of palms)A

Etymology

  • Commemorates the Polish astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543). (Dransfield, J., Uhl, N., Asmussen, C., Baker, W.J., Harley, M. & Lewis, C. 2008: Genera Palmarum. The evolution and classification of palms)A

Uses

  • Copernicia prunifera is of great economic importance as the source of high quality carnauba wax (Johnson 1985). Other parts of all species are also used locally as leaves for thatching, stems for building, and fibres for brushes and rope. Starch from stems and fruits is edible; seedlings are used for fodder. (Dransfield, J., Uhl, N., Asmussen, C., Baker, W.J., Harley, M. & Lewis, C. 2008: Genera Palmarum. The evolution and classification of palms)A

Description

  • Moderate to tall, solitary (rarely clustered), slow-growing, armed, pleonanthic, hermaphroditic palms. Stems covered with persistent leaf sheaths for part or all their length, sometimes becoming bare with age, the naked portion roughened and often with close, rough, ± evident leaf scars, basally expanded or not (Copernicia berteroana). Leaves induplicate, palmate to shortly costapalmate; sheath fibrous, petiole lacking or very short to elongate, channelled or flattened adaxially, rounded abaxially, the margins armed with stout teeth; adaxial hastula short to very long, coriaceous, triangular, unarmed or spinose margined or erose, sometimes persisting after the lamina has disintegrated, abaxial hastula absent; blade wedge-shaped or orbicular, divided 1/4 to 1/3 to the base into single-fold pointed segments, outermost bifid at the apex, segments often spiny margined, thick, very stiff, major ribs with caducous tomentum, midribs prominent abaxially, transverse veinlets not evident. Inflorescences interfoliar, often exceeding the leaves, frequently densely tomentose, branched to 6 orders; peduncle elongate, narrow, elliptic in cross-section; prophyll tubular; peduncular bracts 0–1, apparently 2-winged, irregularly split apically; rachis about as long as or longer than the peduncle; rachis bracts tubular, closely sheathing, first-order branches each bearing a prophyll, subsequent bracts tubular, tightly sheathing, split apically, gradually reduced and lacking on rachillae or present and conspicuous through to the flowers, usually densely tomentose; rachillae of medium length to very short, stout or slender, often recurved, bearing spirally inserted, membranous bracts, each subtending a solitary flower or groups of 2–4 flowers, distant or very crowded, the group and each flower subtended by a membranous bracteole. Flowers with 3 sepals united in a thick-based, 3-lobed cup, lobes usually acute; corolla tubular below with 3 thick-tipped, valvate lobes, prominently pocketed and furrowed within; stamens 6, united by their broad filament bases into a cupule, borne at the mouth of the corolla tube, distinct filament lobes abruptly narrowed to short slender tips, these not inflexed in bud, antesepalous lobes sometimes larger than antepetalous ones, anthers usually small, ovate or oblong, dorsifixed near their bases, latrorse; carpels 3, follicular, distinct basally, styles wide basally, tapering, connate, stigma dot-like, ovule erect, basal, anatropous. Pollen ellipsoidal, with slight to obvious asymmetry; aperture a distal sulcus; ectexine tectate, finely perforate, perforate and micro-channelled, or perforate-rugulate, aperture margin slightly finer; infratectum columellate; longest axis 24–38 µm; post-meiotic tetrads usually tetrahedral, occasionally tetragonal or, rarely, rhomboidal [5/21]. Fruit ovoid or spherical, usually developing from 1 carpel, carpellary remains basal, stigmatic remains apical; epicarp smooth, drying minutely roughened, mesocarp slightly fleshy with longitudinally anastomosing fibres, endocarp moderately thick, crustaceous. Seed ovoid or globose, basally attached, with large ovate basal hilum, raphe indistinct, narrow, branching, endosperm deeply ruminate; embryo subbasal. Germination remote-tubular; eophyll entire, lanceolate. 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), roots (Seubert 1997), flower (Morrow 1965). (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

  • Monocolpate pollen from the Lower Miocene of Poland (Macko 1957) has been compared to Copernicia pollen, but the pollen is of too general a coryphoid type to be conclusive. See also entry for Serenoa. (Dransfield, J., Uhl, N., Asmussen, C., Baker, W.J., Harley, M. & Lewis, C. 2008: Genera Palmarum. The evolution and classification of palms)A

Relationships

  • The monophyly of Copernicia has not been tested. Uhl et al. (1995) and Baker et al. (in review) found it to be sister to Pritchardia. However, Asmussen et al. (2006) resolved the genus as sister to the Livistoninae with low support. (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

  • Dahlgren and Glassman (1961, 1963). (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