Lanonia dasyantha

Family: Arecaceae    Palm Tree

Common Name: Vietnamese Paradise Palm

Scientific Synonymy:
Licuala dasyantha

Common Synonymy:
cay lua khua, la non, lua khua

Cold Hardiness Zone: 9b     View the UK and US zone maps

Lanonia dasyantha Information

Identification:
Stems solitary or clustered, to 1.5 m tall, to 6 cm diameter, sometimes short and subterranean. Leaves 15; leaf sheaths 12-20 cm long, extended above the petioles into 6-15 cm long auricles; petioles 15-200 cm long, without spines or the proximal ca. half with widely spaced, recurved, brown spines to 1 cm long; blades 26-107 cm wide, split into 5-13 segments, mottled light and dark green, with minute reddish-brown scales abaxially, with straight or slightly curved sides; costas 5.5-17.0 cm long; middle segment deeply split (to apex of costa) into 2 lobes, these wider than the other segments, 16-58 cm long, 10-30 cm wide at the apices, rarely middle segment not split; indentations leading to adaxial folds 0.5-1 cm deep, those leading to adaxial folds 0.2-0.3 cm deep, indentations deeper on lateral segments. Inflorescences 60-70 cm long, becoming recurved below the leaves at or after anthesis; prophylls 6.5-8 cm long; peduncles 18-35 cm long; rachis 0-12 cm long, with 1, rarely 2 partial inflorescences, these branched to 1 order, subtended by broad, flattened, densely brown tomentose, plicate rachis bracts, these splitting laterally and irregularly and deeply tattering; staminate rachillae 2-7 on each partial inflorescence, 9-14 cm long, to 2 mm diameter, densely covered with brown or whitish, branched hairs; floral stalks scarcely developed, solitary or borne in pairs, each subtended by ciliate bracteoles; staminate flower buds 2-2.7 mm long, bullet-shaped; calyces 1.5-2 mm long, 3-lobed at the apices, moderately covered with brown, felty hairs; corollas 2-2.3 mm long, split for ca. half their length into 3 valvate petals, glabrous; staminal rings scarcely developed; filaments free for ca. 2 mm long, alternately long and short; anthers ca. 0.3 mm long; pistillate rachillae 1-4 on each partial inflorescence, 8-24 cm long, to 4 mm diameter, hairy as the staminate rachillae; floral stalks scarcely developed, solitary, each subtended by small, ciliate bracteoles; pistillateflower buds 6-6.2 mm long, ellipsoid; calyces 3.5-4 mm long, briefly 6-lobed at the apices at anthesis, densely covered with felty, brown hairs; corollas 4-5.5 mm long, striate, split for ca. two thirds their length into 3 petals; staminal rings ca. 1.5 mm high, with vestigial filaments; pistils ca. 4 mm long including a 1 mm long style, glabrous. Fruits 0.7-0.8 cm diameter, irregularly globose, red at maturity, epicarp warty.

Work in progress
Species Information currently being revised!

Distribution:

Native to, China, Vietnam

Known from China (Guangxi) and northern and central Vietnam (Bac Kan, Ha Giang, Lang Son, Lao Cai, Nghe An, Phu Tho, Quang Ninh, Thua Thien-Hue, Tuyen Quang, and Vinh Phuc) in primary, closed, broad-leaved, evergreen forest on steep mountain slopes on granite or quartzite rocks, less often on limestone, at 100–1,000 m elevation. Probably also in Laos.

Location: Vietnam (22.006891°N, 105.468750°E)

Observations
Map may not represent the complete natural distribution. (Markers display observation data).
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