''Itaya amicorum'' is a medium-size

fan palm Fan palm as a descriptive term can refer to any of several different kinds of Arecaceae, palms (Arecaceae) in various Genus, genera with leaves that are palmately lobed (rather than pinnately compound). Most are members of the subfamily Coryphoide ...

that is native to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

and

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. It is the only species in the genus ''Itaya''. It was unknown to science until 1972, when it was discovered on the

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

of the

Itaya River The Itaya River is a tributary of the Amazon River via the Nanay River in northern Peru. The Itaya flows alongside the city of Iquitos and the district of Belén. In Iquitos, a riverwalk and breakwater called Malecón Tarapacá overlooks the It ...

in the

Peruvian Amazon Peruvian Amazonia (), informally known locally as the Peruvian jungle () or just the jungle (), is the area of the Amazon rainforest in Peru, east of the Andes and Peru's borders with Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, and Bolivia. Peru has the second-l ...

Description

''Itaya amicorum'' is a medium-sized, single-stemmed palm with fan-shaped (or palmate) leaves. The stems reach a height of up to with a diameter of . Plants have between 11 and 25 leaves which have a roughly circular blade, about in diameter which is split into 10 to 16 broad leaflets, and a long

petiole Petiole may refer to: *Petiole (botany), the stalk of a leaf, attaching the blade to the stem *Petiole (insect anatomy) In entomology, petiole is the technical term for the narrow waist of some hymenopteran insects, especially ants, bees, and ...

. The leaves have a whitish or silver-grey underside. ''Itaya amicorum'' is pleonanthic—it flowers repeatedly over the course of its lifespan—and

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 ...

; both male and female sex organs are present in the same flowers. The flowers are whitish in colour, while the fruit are yellowish-green, long, in diameter.

Taxonomy

''Itaya'' is a

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 ...

genus—it includes only a single species, ''I. amicorum''. The species was first collected in 1972 along the

Rio Itaya The Itaya River is a tributary of the Amazon River via the Nanay River in northern Peru. The Itaya flows alongside the city of Iquitos and the Districts of Peru, district of Belén District, Maynas, Belén. In Iquitos, a riverwalk and Breakwater ...

in Peru, and was described by

Harold E. Moore Harold Emery Moore, Jr. (July 7, 1917 – October 27, 1980) was an American botanist especially known for his work on the systematics of the Arecaceae, palm family. He served as Director of the L. H. Bailey Hortorium at Cornell University, and wa ...

the same year. In the first edition of ''

Genera Palmarum ''Genera Palmarum'' is a botany reference book that gives a detailed overview of the systematic biology of the palm family (Arecaceae). The first edition of ''Genera Palmarum'' was published in 1987. The second edition was published in 2008, with ...

'' (1987),

Natalie Uhl Natalie Whitford Uhl (1919–2017) was an American botanistIPNI: Natalie Whitf ...

and

John Dransfield John Dransfield (born 1945) is former head of palm research at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. Dransfield has written or contributed to several books on palms, notably both the first and second editions of '' Genera Palmarum''. ...

placed the genus ''Itaya'' in the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

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, ...

, the

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 ...

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 the

subtribe Subtribe is a taxonomic category ranking which is below the rank of tribe and above genus. The standard suffix for a subtribe is -ina (in animals) or -inae (in plants). The first use of this word dates back to the late 19th century. An example of ...

Thrinacinae Subsequent

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

analysis showed that the

Old World The "Old World" () is a term for Afro-Eurasia coined by Europeans after 1493, when they became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia in the Eastern Hemisphere, previously ...

and

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

members of the Thrinacinae were not closely related. As a consequence of this, ''Itaya'' and related genera were places in their own tribe,

Cryosophileae Cryosophileae is a tribe of palms in the subfamily Coryphoideae. The tribe ranges from southern South America, through Central America, into Mexico and the Caribbean. It includes New World genera formerly included in the tribe Thrinacinae, whic ...

Distribution

''Itaya amicorum'' is found only in the western

Amazon basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributary, tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries ...

in Brazil, Colombia and Peru. Originally thought to be

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

due to its narrow distribution, the species is now known to be more widely distributed. The

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

categorises the species as

data deficient A data deficient (DD) species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as offering insufficient information for a proper assessment of conservation status to be made. This does not necessaril ...

Uses

The Miraña, an indigenous Amerindian group in the Amazon, reportedly burn the trunks of ''Itaya amicorum'' in order to extract salt from them. The leaves are used for thatch.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q132362 Coryphoideae Monotypic Arecaceae genera Flora of Brazil Flora of Colombia Flora of Peru Taxonomy articles created by Polbot