The genus ''Pritchardia'' (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 ...

) consists of between 24 and 40 species of fan palms (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, ...

) found on tropical

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

islands This is a list of the lists of islands in the world grouped by country, by continent, by body of water, and by other classifications. For rank-order lists, see the #Other lists of islands, other lists of islands below. Lists of islands by count ...

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

Tuamotus The Tuamotu Archipelago or the Tuamotu Islands (, officially ) are a French Polynesian chain of just under 80 islands and atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean. They constitute the largest chain of atolls in the world, extending (from northwest to ...

, and most diversely in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref> The generic name honors William Thomas Pritchard (1829–1907), a British consul at

Description

These palms vary in height, ranging from . The leaves are fan-shaped (''costapalmate'') and the trunk columnar, naked, smooth or fibrous, longitudinally grooved, and obscurely ringed by leaf scars. The flowers and subsequent fruit are borne in a terminal cluster with simple or compound branches of an arcuate or pendulous

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

that (in some species) is longer than the leaves.

Species

There are 29 known species, of which 19 are

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 the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands () are an archipelago of eight major volcanic islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the Pacific Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the Hawaii (island), island of Hawaii in the south to nort ...

, with the remainder on other

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

groups. Many are critically endangered.

Oahu Oahu (, , sometimes written Oahu) is the third-largest and most populated island of the Hawaiian Islands and of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital, Honolulu, is on Oahu's southeast coast. The island of Oahu and the uninhabited Northwe ...

has the most named ''Pritchardia'' species of any of the Hawaiian islands, with nine named species on record in 1980. Eight of those species can be found in the rainy Koolau Range. * '' Pritchardia affinis'' Becc. – Hawaii Pritchardia (

Island of Hawaii Hawaii is the List of islands of the United States by area, largest island in the United States, located in the Hawaii, state of Hawaii, the southernmost state in the union. It is the southeasternmost of the Hawaiian Islands, a chain of volcani ...

) * '' Pritchardia arecina'' Becc. – Maui Pritchardia (

Maui Maui (; Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ) is the second largest island in the Hawaiian archipelago, at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2). It is the List of islands of the United States by area, 17th-largest in the United States. Maui is one of ...

, Hawaii) * '' Pritchardia aylmer-robinsonii'' H.St.John (

Niihau Niihau (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ), anglicized as Niihau ( ), is the seventh largest island in Hawaii and the westernmost of the main islands. It is southwest of Kauai, Kauai across the Channels of the Hawaiian Islands#Kaulakahi Channel, Ka ...

) * ''

Pritchardia bakeri The genus ''Pritchardia'' (family Arecaceae) consists of between 24 and 40 species of fan palms (subfamily Coryphoideae) found on tropical Pacific Ocean Pacific Islands, islands in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Tuamotus, and most diversely in Hawaiian ...

'' – (Oahu, Hawaiian Islands) * '' Pritchardia beccariana'' Rock – Kilauea Pritchardia (Island of Hawaii) * '' Pritchardia flynnii'' Lorence & Gemmill (

Kauai Kauai (), anglicized as Kauai ( or ), is one of the main Hawaiian Islands. It has an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), making it the fourth-largest of the islands and the 21st-largest island in the United States. Kauai lies 73 m ...

, Hawaii) * '' Pritchardia forbesiana'' Rock – Mt. Eke Pritchardia (Maui, Hawaii) * '' Pritchardia glabrata'' Becc. & Rock (Maui, Hawaii) * '' Pritchardia gordonii'' (Hawaii: Kohala Mountains) * '' Pritchardia hardyi'' Rock – Makaleha Pritchardia (

, Hawaii) * '' Pritchardia hillebrandii'' (Kuntze) Becc. (Native range uncertain, but believed to be

Molokai Molokai or Molokai ( or ; Molokaʻi dialect: Morotaʻi ) is the fifth most populated of the eight major islands that make up the Hawaiian Islands archipelago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is 38 by 10 miles (61 by 16 km) at its g ...

, Hawaii) * '' Pritchardia kaalae'' Rock – Waianae Range Pritchardia (

, Hawaii) * '' Pritchardia kahukuensis'' – (Oahu: NW. Koolau Mountains) * '' Pritchardia lanaiensis'' Becc. & Rock – Lānai Pritchardia ( Lānai, Hawaii) * '' Pritchardia lanigera'' Becc. (Island of Hawaii) * '' Pritchardia limahuliensis'' H.St.John (Kauai, Hawaii) * '' Pritchardia lowreyana'' Rock – Molokai Pritchardia (Molokai, Hawaii) * '' Pritchardia maideniana'' (Unknown origin, possibly Fiji or Tonga) * '' Pritchardia martii'' (Gaud.) H.Wendl – Koolau Range pritchardia (syn. ''P. gaudichaudii'') (Oahu, Hawaii) * '' Pritchardia minor'' Becc. – Alakai Swamp Pritchardia (Kauai, Hawaii) * '' Pritchardia mitiaroana'' Dransfield & Ehrhardt (

Mitiaro Mitiʻāro, the fourth island in the Cook Islands group, is of volcano, volcanic origin. Standing in water deep it is across at its widest point. Geography Mitiaro, also known as Nukuroa, is part of the Nga-Pu-Toru island group formerly, a vol ...

Cook Islands The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...

) * '' Pritchardia munroi'' Rock – Kamalo Pritchardia (Molokai, Hawaii) * '' Pritchardia napaliensis'' H.St.John (Kauai, Hawaii) * '' Pritchardia pacifica'' Seem. & H.Wendl. (

) * '' Pritchardia perlmanii'' Gemmill (Kauai, Hawaii) * '' Pritchardia remota'' Becc. – Nihoa Pritchardia (

Nihoa Nihoa (; or ), also known as Bird Island or Moku Manu, is the tallest of ten islands and atolls in the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI). The island is located at the southern end of the NWHI chain, southeast of Necker ...

, Hawaii) * '' Pritchardia schattaueri'' Hodel – Giant Pritchardia (Island of Hawaii) * '' Pritchardia tahuatana'' (

Marquesas The Marquesas Islands ( ; or ' or ' ; Marquesan: ' ( North Marquesan) and ' ( South Marquesan), both meaning "the land of men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southern Pacific ...

: Tahuata and Fatu Hiva) * '' Pritchardia thurstonii'' F.Muell. &

Drude In German folklore, a drude (, , pl. ''Druden'') is a kind of malevolent nocturnal spirit (an alp, kobold or hag) associated with nightmares, prevalent especially in Southern Germany. Druden were said to participate in the Wild Hunt and we ...

(Fiji and Tonga) * '' Pritchardia viscosa'' Becc. – Stickybud Pritchardia (Kauai, Hawaii) * '' Pritchardia vuylstekeana'' H.Wendl. – Tuamotu Archipelago * '' Pritchardia waialealeana'' R.W.Read (Kauai, Hawaii) * '' Pritchardia woodfordiana'' (

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

) * '' Pritchardia woodii'' Hodel (

Maui, Hawaii Maui (; Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ) is the second largest island in the Hawaiian archipelago, at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2). It is the List of islands of the United States by area, 17th-largest in the United States. Maui is one of ...

) * † ''Pritchardia'' sp. "Laysan" ( Laysan†)

Formerly placed here

* ''

Licuala grandis ''Licuala grandis'', the ruffled fan palm, Vanuatu fan palm or Palas palm, is a species of palm tree in the family Arecaceae, native to Vanuatu, an island nation in the Pacific. It grows in the understory of primary and secondary tropical rain ...

'' (hort. ex W. Bull) H.Wendl. (as ''P. grandis'' hort. ex W. Bull) (Vanuatu) * '' Washingtonia filifera'' (Linden ex André) H.Wendl. (as ''P. filamentosa'' H.Wendl. ex Franceschi or ''P. filifera'' Linden ex André) (Southwestern United States and Baja California)

Relationship with humans

Native Hawaiians Native Hawaiians (also known as Indigenous Hawaiians, Kānaka Maoli, Aboriginal Hawaiians, or simply Hawaiians; , , , and ) are the Indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaiʻi was settled at least 800 years ago by Polynesian ...

(who call them ''loulu'' or ''noulu'') often plant the trees in their traditional homes. They often consume their seeds (known as ''hāwane'' or ''wāhane'') raw, use their trunk wood as building material and leaves as roof thatching in houses and

temples A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

References

Kew Palms Checklist: ''Pritchardia''

External links