Metroxylon is a genus of monoecious 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 Caroline Islands and Fiji in a variety of habitats, and cultivated westward to Thailand and Malay Peninsula.[ Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families]
The name is a combination of two Greek words: meaning "womb", commonly translated as "heart" in this context, and meaning "wood", in allusion to the large proportion of pith contained in the plant.
Description
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".
[Riffle, R. L. and Craft, P. (2003). An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms. Portland: Timber Press. / (page 389)] 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
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 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 [WCSP, World Checklist of Arecaceae: Metroxylon ]|
|
| Pohnpei, Chuuk State |
| Samoa |
| New Guinea, Maluku Islands |
| New Guinea, Maluku, Solomon Islands, Santa Cruz Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, Vanuatu |
| Samoa |
| Wallis and Futuna, Fiji |
| Santa Cruz Islands, Samoa, Vanuatu |
|
