Metroxylon
Genus of palms
Metroxylon is a genus of monoecious flowering plants in the Arecaceae (palm) family, and commonly called the sago palms, consisting of seven species. They are native to Western Samoa, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the Moluccas, the Carolines and Fiji in a variety of habitats, and cultivated westward to Thailand and Malaya.
The name is a combination of two Greek words: metra meaning "womb", commonly translated as "heart" in this context, and xylon meaning "wood", in allusion to the large proportion of pith contained in the plant.
01Description
The trunks of Metroxylon species are solitary or clumped and large to massive in size, and usually sprout aerial roots at leaf-scar rings. All but one is monocarpic (hapaxanthic), foliage is pinnate with oversized petioles and leaf sheaths. The petioles are distinguished by "groups of small black spines resembling the record made by a seismograph as it registers a mild tremor". All species have spines on the rachis and petiole. The monocarpic species present a Christmas tree shaped inflorescence, or instead, upward-reaching branches spreading horizontally. These panicles are second only to Corypha spp in size, in the case of Metroxylon salomonense growing up to thirty feet (nine meters) in height by up to fifteen feet (4.6 meters) in width. The fruit, covered in tough shiny scales arranged in precise rows, are relatively large for palms and contain one seed.
Extant species
It contains the following species
| Image | Name | Common name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Metroxylon amicarum (H.Wendl.) Hook.f. | Caroline ivory-nut palm | Pohnpei, Chuuk | |
| Metroxylon paulcoxii McClatchey | Samoa | ||
| Metroxylon sagu Rottb. | Sago palm | New Guinea, Maluku | |
| Metroxylon salomonense (Warb.) Becc. | Solomon palm | New Guinea, Maluku, Solomon Islands, Santa Cruz Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, Vanuatu | |
| Metroxylon upoluense Becc. | Samoa | ||
| Metroxylon vitiense (H.Wendl.) Hook.f. | Fiji sago palm | Wallis and Futuna, Fiji | |
| Metroxylon warburgii (Heimerl) Becc. | natangura palm | Santa Cruz Islands, Samoa, Vanuatu |
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Metroxylon”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Sago (Metroxylon sagu) in New Guinea.jpg by Toksave, CC BY-SA 3.0
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