Licuala multibracteata Barfod & Heatubun, 2022

Barfod, Anders S. & Heatubun, Charlie D., 2022, Seven new species of Licuala (Livistoninae, Arecaceae) from New Guinea, Phytotaxa 555 (1), pp. 1-16 : 10

5. Licuala multibracteata Barfod & Heatubun , sp. nov.

Type:― PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Central Province: Hiritano highway near Brown River , 50 m, 9°16’S, 147°13’E, 3 April 2000, Barfod et al. 468 (holotype AAU!, isotypes BRI!, CANB!, K!, LAE!)

Figure 6.

Diagnosis: ―This species shares many-noded inflorescences and pedicellate flowers with Licuala bankae , L. penduliflora , and L. suprafolia . It differs from these by having bullet-shaped flowers, with a shallowly splitting calyx and much longer corolla.

Solitary palm tree up to 4 m tall. Stem about 7–8 cm in diam. Leaves about 20–25 in crown; leaf sheath 25–30 cm long, disintegrating into a fibrous mesh, apex often detached in a 20–25 long strap-like appendix; petiole 150–200 cm long, flattened, 2–2.5 x 0.6–0.8 cm in cross section, 0.8–1 cm wide below insertion of lamina, covered distally by patches of ferruginous tomentum, lower 1/10 armed with up to 5 mm long, curved spines; lamina rounded in outline, divided in 25–35 segments; mid-segment 60–70 cm long, with 10–15 adaxial ribs, 13–17 cm wide, truncate apically; lateral segments 55–65 cm long, with 3–4 adaxial ribs, 5–7 cm wide, truncate apically, basal segments 50–60 cm long, with 2–3 adaxial ribs, about 3–5 cm wide, oblique apically; indentations leading to adaxial ribs, 1–2 cm long, those leading to abaxial ribs, only slightly shorter. Inflorescences 140–160 cm long, branched to second order, with 9–11 partial inflorescences, straight, curved and contained within the crown at flowering; peduncle 60–80 cm long, covered by prophyll and peduncular bract; prophyll 25–30 cm long, 3–4 cm wide basally, inserted 10–15 cm above the peduncle base, with ferruginous tomentum increasing in density towards the margins, breaking up irregularly in up to 10 cm long splits; peduncular bracts 2, 18–22 cm long, similar to prophyll in size and texture, but not as sharply keeled, splitting neatly with 1–2, up to 2 cm long splits; rachis 75–90 cm long; basal rachis bract similar to peduncular bracts in size, texture and hair cover; main axis of proximal first order branch 5–15 cm long; carrying about 10–20 rachillae, both rachis and rachillae covered by scattered to dense ferruginous tomentum. Flowers mostly single, hermaphroditic, subtending bract 0.6–0.8 mm long, pedicel 1.5–1.7 mm long, glabrous; calyx funnel-shaped, 3 mm long, fused with receptacle for ca. 1 mm, glabrous, breaking up in shallow, pointed lobes, 0.2–0.3 high; corolla 4.7–5 mm long, white, fused with staminal tube for ca. 1.5 mm, splitting in pointed, ca. 3 mm long lobes; staminal ring 1.1– 1.3 mm high, anthers inserted in two levels, 0.4–0.6 mm long; ovary glabrous, 1.4–1.6 mm long, rounded to slightly truncate apically; style, 1.3–1.5 mm long, locules ca. 1 mm long situated in lower half of gynoecium. Fruit orange to red at maturity, globose, 8–10 mm in diam., remnant calyx conspicuous; mesocarp about 1 mm thick; endocarp smooth. Seed endosperm with central cavity.

Distribution and habitat: ―This species has thus far only been recorded from fragments of periodically inundated forest on alluvial flats along the Brown River.

Local names: ―None recorded.

Uses: ―None recorded.

Conservation status: ―Critically Endangered. Licuala multibracteata is known from only three sites. Additional localities have not been found through subsequent fieldwork. It has specific habitat requirements and deforestation due to logging concessions is a major threat in its distribution range.

Etymology: ―The epithet describes the numerous bracts borne on the main axis of the inforecsences, the basal ones being empty (= peduncular bracts) and the remaining ones subtending first order branches (= rachis bracts).

Specimens examined:― PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Central Province: 4 miles E of Karema , 20 m, 9°11’S, 147°17’E, 12 July, 1962, Schodde 2542 (A!, BRI! CANB!, K!, L!, LAE!); one mile NE of Bereina ,, 20 m, 8°39’S, 146°30’E, 7 September 1962, Pullen 3644 (CANB!); near Malalaua, 5 m, 8 4’S; 146 9’E, 2 March, 1966, Craven 932 (CANB!, LAE!); Brown River road 30 miles N of Port Moresby, 10 m, 9°10’S, 147°10’E, 21 February, 1972, Essig 55172 (BH!, LAE!) .