Chuniophoeniceae is a

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

of palms in subfamily

Coryphoideae The Coryphoideae is one of five subfamilies in the palm family, Arecaceae. It contains all of the genera with palmate leaves, excepting '' Mauritia'', '' Mauritiella'' and '' Lepidocaryum,'' all of subfamily Calamoideae, tribe Lepidocaryeae, ...

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

family

Arecaceae The Arecaceae () is a family (biology), family of perennial plant, perennial, flowering plants in the Monocotyledon, monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbing palm, climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly k ...

. The four genera within the tribe are morphologically dissimilar and do not have overlapping distributions. Three of the genera are

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

, while the fourth

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

(''

Chuniophoenix ''Chuniophoenix'' is a genus of palm tree named after Chun Woon-Young, then director of the Botanical Institute, Sun Yat Sen University, Guangzhou. It contains three known species, native to southern China and Vietnam. ''Chuniophoenix'' is a memb ...

'') has three

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

Description

Outwardly, the palms in the four genera of Chuniophoeniceae appear quite different. ''Chuniophoenix'' are small palms from the forest understory with clustered stems; ''

Kerriodoxa ''Kerriodoxa elegans'', the white backed palm, is the only species of palm tree in the genus ''Kerriodoxa'', in the family Arecaceae. It is an endemic species of Thailand, first discovered in the Khao Phra Thaew reserve on 11 March 1929 and desc ...

'' is a squat, single-stemmed rainforest palm; '' Nannorrhops'' is a sprawling desert palm with branching stems; and ''

Tahina Tahini () (, or in Iraq: (rashi-راشي)) is a Middle Eastern condiment (a seed butter) made from ground sesame seeds. The most common variety comes from hulled seeds, but unhulled ones can also be used; the latter variety is slightly bitter, ...

'' is a massive solitary palm from exposed limestone outcrops. They differ significantly in their flowering strategies, too. ''Chuniophoenix'' species flower regularly throughout their lives (pleonanthic) and produce

hermaphroditic A hermaphrodite () is a sexually reproducing organism that produces both male and female gametes. Animal species in which individuals are either male or female are gonochoric, which is the opposite of hermaphroditic. The individuals of many ...

flowers (rarely single gender); ''Kerriodoxa'' are also pleonanthic, but are always

dioecious Dioecy ( ; ; adj. dioecious, ) is a characteristic of certain species that have distinct unisexual individuals, each producing either male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproduction is ...

; ''Nannorrhops'' stems die after flowering (hapaxanthic), though the much-branched plant survives; ''Tahina'' produces a massive terminal inflorescence and dies after fruiting. All Chuniophoeniceae have

palmate The following terms are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade is divided into two or more leaflets ...

leaves with induplicate folds and tubular

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also lo ...

s partially enclosing the flowers.

Taxonomy

Chuniophoeniceae is one of eight tribes in subfamily Coryphoideae. The tribe is

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

and closely related to tribes

Caryoteae Caryoteae is a tribe within the palm family Arecaceae, distributed across Southeast Asia, from southern India and Sri Lanka east to Vanuatu and northernmost Queensland, Australia. It was historically classified under the subfamily Arecoideae due ...

Corypheae Corypheae is a tribe of palm trees in the subfamily Coryphoideae. In previous classifications, tribe Corypheae included four subtribes: Coryphinae, Livistoninae, Thrinacinae and Sabalinae, but recent phylogenetic studies have led to the genera wi ...

and

Borasseae Borasseae is a tribe in the palm subfamily Coryphoideae. The tribe ranges from southern Africa and Madagascar north through the Arabian Peninsula to India, Indochina, Indonesia and New Guinea. Several genera are restricted to islands in the India ...

, forming the syncarpous

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

. In a previous classification, prior to the discovery of ''Tahina'', the three other genera were placed in tribe Corypheae, subtribe Coryphinae, together with the genus ''

Corypha ''Corypha'' or the gebang palm, buri palm or talipot palm is a genus of palms (family Arecaceae), native to India, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, New Guinea and northeastern Australia (Cape York Peninsula, Queensland). They are fan pa ...

''. Coincidentally, ''Corypha'' and ''Tahina'' both share the strategy of producing a massive display of flowers only once before dying. The four genera have widely disjunct distributions. ''Chuniophoenix'' (3 spp.) is found in southern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

; ''Kerriodoxa'' (1 sp., ''K. elegans'') is restricted to peninsular

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

; ''Nannorrhops'' (1 sp., ''N. ritchiana'') is found in parts of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

and the southeastern

Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...

; while ''Tahina'' (1 sp., ''T. spectabilis'') is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to a small area of northwestern

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

Genera

Gallery

File:Chuniophoenix nana kz1.jpg, Foliage of ''Chuniophoenix nana'' File:Kerriodoxa elegans Habitus.jpg, Distinctive white undersides to the leaves of ''Kerriodoxa elegans'' File:Kerriodoxa elegans, fruit (14439293434).jpg, Fruits of ''Kerriodoxa elegans'' File:Nannorrhops ritchiana kz2.jpg, Silvery-blue foliage of ''Nannorrhops ritchiana'' File:Tahina spectabilis 9608-2008 08 11.JPG, Seedlings of ''Tahina spectabilis'' in cultivation

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1089595 Coryphoideae Monocot tribes