Palm Veitchia

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Palm Veitchia (lat. Veitchia) - a genus of evergreen palms of the Arecaceae family (lat. Arecaceae), or Palm trees (lat. Palmaceae). Palm trees are a popular ornamental plant that adorns landscapes around the world, although they are native to the islands located in the South Pacific Ocean. In addition, they are often used as greenhouse or indoor plants, since they are thermophilic, although they can withstand a short-term drop in air temperature to minus two degrees Celsius.

Description

A thin slender single trunk of palm trees rushes into the heavens to a height of six to thirty meters. The complex plumose green leaves consist of many leaflets held by short petioles for a common long petiole.

Closer to the top of the trunk is a lush crown of feathery leaves. Under the crown, inflorescences are born, the flowers of which turn into red fruits, fully ripening in winter, which was the reason for the popular name of some species of the genus - "Christmas palms".

Varieties

Today, there are eleven types of palm trees in the genus:

* Veitchia arecina is a variety of flowering palms. The height of the upright trunk varies from eight to eleven meters. At the top of the palm there is a spreading crown of long feathery leaves. The flowers of the palm are white or yellow. This species grows only in Vanuatu, an island state. Eighty-four islands of the country are located in the South Pacific Ocean.

* Veitchia filifera is endemic to the Fiji archipelago, which is located east of the state of Vanuatu in the waters of the Pacific Ocean. The species is very similar to the species "Veitchia simulans" and "Veitchia vitiensis", which will be described below.

* Veitchia joannis is a palm tree with a straight trunk and a lush crown of complex feathery leaves originally from the islands of Fiji, but naturalized in the island Kingdom of Tonga, which is located in the South Pacific, east of the Fiji archipelago.

* Veitchia lepidota - or Veitchia scaly, is endemic to the Solomon Islands, growing in dense rainforests on the mountain slopes and in mangroves along the coast.

* Veitchia metiti is another species of the genus, which is endemic to Vanuatu, keeping company with a relative named Veitchia arecina.

* Veitchia pachyclada - This species is endangered and is endemic to the Solomon Islands.

* Veitchia simulans is a species similar to Veitchia filifera. Is an inhabitant of tropical rainforests of the island of Taveuni (Fiji). It grows up to fifteen meters in height with a trunk diameter of fifteen centimeters. Due to its thinness, the trunk is often curved. The crown shaft is brown-black and variegated. The crown consists of no more than nine compound long leaves (up to two and a half meters long). The palm is much larger than Veitchia filifera and turns red when fully ripe.

* Veitchia spiralis is a fast-growing palm tree that is healthy for the humid tropics with a slender trunk up to twenty meters high. The crown shaft is almost white or green in color, from which elegantly curved feathery compound leaves are born, forming a picturesque crown of a palm tree.

* Veitchia subdisticha is a single-stemmed upright palm tree with feathery leaves, the foliage of which forms a prominent crown shaft. Green fruits turn orange and then red as they ripen. Endemic to the Solomon Islands.

* Veitchia vitiensis is a species very similar to Veitchia filifera. An attractive small Fijian palm tree with a single slender trunk up to fifteen meters high. Short densely felt petioles with feathery leaves up to two to four meters long emerge from a clearly visible crown shaft. About eight of these leaves form the lush crown of the palm tree.

* Veitchia winin - endemic to the Vanuatu islands with a single upright trunk. A long crown shaft supports about a dozen large, slightly curved leaves with wide, dark green, hanging leaves. Very decorative and fast-growing species.