Tropicos | Name - Raphia P. Beauv.

Raphia P. Beauv.

Flora Data (Last Modified On 10/24/2012)

Genus	RAPHIA Beauv.
PlaceOfPublication	Fl. Oware et Benin 1:75. 1804.
Description	Monoecious unarmed pinnate-leaved heavy trees, often soboliferous or growing in clumps in moist or- wet places, monocarpic (plant dying after fruiting): spadices immense in size, interfoliar; the great branches pendent or hanging, 2 m. and more long, thicker than a man's arm, the ultimate stiff or even rigid distichous rachillae 6-10 cm. long and very closely flowered, the long staminate flowers con- spicuously imbedded, stamens 6 and more with erect linear anthers; pistillate flowers larger or at least broader than the staminate, ovoid, the closed body or involucre covered with retrorse scales, staminodia present inside, ovary 3-loculed, stigma sessile; trusses or "hands" of flowers and fruits projecting from beneath hard parchment-like sheathing imbricate scales or spathes that immutably involve the rachis: fruit a loricate oblong or pyriform body 4-6 cm. long, containing within the shell a single oblong nut-like seed ornamented with rapheal lines' and depressions and ruminate inside with prominent intrusions.
Distribution	About 20 species in tropical Africa, and several varieties; the only Old World genus of palms native also in the western hemisphere, represented on the continent by apparently a single species; another species on Martinique, French West Indies, is perhaps introduced.