Hyophorbe lagenicaulis

Hyophorbe lagenicaulis
Conservation status
Critically Endangered  (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Monocots
(unranked):	Commelinids
Order:	Arecales
Family:	Arecaceae
Genus:	Hyophorbe
Species:	H. lagenicaulis
Binomial name
Hyophorbe lagenicaulis (L.H.Bailey) H.E.Moore

Hyophorbe lagenicaulis, the bottle palm or palmiste gargoulette, is a species of flowering plant in the Arecaceae family. It is native to Round Island, Mauritius.

Description

Bottle palm has a large swollen (sometimes bizarrely so) trunk. It is a myth that the trunk is a means by which the palm stores water. Bottle palm has only four to six leaves open at any time. The flowers of the palm arise from under the crownshaft.

Distribution and habitat

The bottle palm is naturally endemic to Round Island, off the coast of Mauritius. While habitat destruction may destroy the last remaining palms in the wild, the survival of the species is assured due to its ubiquitous planting throughout the tropics and subtropics as a specimen plant.

Cultivation

Bottle palms are very cold sensitive and are killed at 0 °C (32 °F) or colder for any appreciable length of time. They may survive a brief, light frost, but will have foliage damage. Only southern Florida and Hawaii provide safe locations in the USA to grow Bottle Palm, although mature flowering specimens may be occasionally be seen in favored microclimates around Cape Canaveral and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater in coastal central Florida. It makes a fine container-grown palm in other locations as long as it is protected from the cold and not overwatered.

• 

  Juvenile stage.

• 

  Close-up of trunk.

Sources

• Page, W. 1998. Hyophorbe lagenicaulis. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 20 July 2007.

See also

• The Beaucarnea (Ponytail palms et al.) are sometimes called Bottle palms.