Caulescent, unbranched, dioecious; trunk up to ± 25 m tall with 1 or 2(3) ventricose swellings in upper half, fairly smooth
Leaves
palmate; petiole ± as long as lamina, irregularly dentate; hastula irregular, visible from both sides; leaf bases persistent until anthesis
Flowers
in axillary pendulous spikes
Male flowers
forming branched, swollen spadices, spirally arranged in close-set transverse grooves with up to 10 flowers in each groove; sepals 3, free; petals 3, free; stamens 6, fused below into a tube, free and patent above; ovary 0
Female flowers
in simple swollen spadices, few-flowered, with 1 compressed globose flower in each groove; sepals and petals concave, imbricate, short, obtuse; staminodes minute; ovary globose, 3-locular; stigma sessile, minute
Fruit
globose, hard, ± 150 mm in diameter, sessile, surrounded basally by accrescent sepals and petals
Seeds
3, ovoid, with fibrous covering
x = 18
Nomenclature:
*Borassus
L.
Linnaeus: 1187 (1753)
Dyer: 215 (1952)
Wicht: 39 (1969)
Dransfield: 18 (1986)
Uhl & Dransfield: 222 (1987)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species 3-7, Africa to Sri Lanka
Southern Africa
: Species 1: *
Borassus aethiopum
Mart., probably introduced and now naturalised near Leydsdorp, Northern Province
References:
DRANSFIELD, J. 1986.
Flora of tropical East Africa
.
Palmae
DYER, R.A. 1952. A note on the distribution of the palms of South Africa with special reference to
Borassus
in the Transvaal.
South African Journal of Science
48
LINNAEUS, C. 1753.
Species plantarum
. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
UHL, N. & DRANSFIELD, J.W. 1987.
Genera palmarum
. International Palm Society and Allen Press, Lawrence KS
WICHT, H. 1969.
The indigenous palms of southern Africa
. Timmins, Cape Town
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